Published
- $69,528
- Minimum repayment threshold, 2026–27, up from $67,000 in 2025–26
- 9.9 yrs
- Average time to repay a HELP debt in full, 2023, up from 7.3 years in 2006
- 20%
- One-off cut to HELP balances in 2025, wiping $5,520 off an average $27,600 debt
- 51.5%
- Rise in the minimum threshold since 2019–20, including a legislated jump
The minimum income needed to start repaying a HECS-HELP debt is $69,528 in the 2026–27 financial year, up from $54,435 just two years earlier. From 1 July 2025, compulsory repayments are calculated on a marginal basis, so only the income above the threshold is charged, rather than a flat percentage of the whole amount.
The government also cut existing HELP balances by 20% in 2025, wiping $5,520 from an average $27,600 debt. Even with those changes, the most recent published repayment-time figure shows it took the average borrower 9.9 years to repay a HECS-HELP debt in full, nearly three years longer than in 2006.
At what income does compulsory HECS-HELP repayment start?
In the 2026–27 financial year, compulsory repayments start once repayment income exceeds $69,528. In 2025–26, the threshold was $67,000.
How HECS indexation works in Australia, and how it has changed debts over timeIndexation applies once a year, on 1 June, to the part of a loan balance that has remained unpaid for more than 11 months. Debt taken on within the previous 11 months is not yet indexed, and indexatio…
Average HECS debt in Australia in 2026: how much do students owe?The average outstanding HELP debt in Australia was $27,739 in the 2024-25 financial year, up slightly from $27,641 the year before and 165% higher than two decades ago. Across the country, 2,962,650 d…
How HECS has changed since 1989: debt, fees and policy over timeHECS began in 1989 with a flat annual charge of $1,800, a compulsory repayment threshold of $22,000, and a maximum repayment rate of 3% of income for the highest earners. That single, flat-rate design…Section 01 · Repayment threshold
HECS-HELP repayments start when income exceeds $69,528
The minimum repayment threshold is $69,528 for 2026–27, up from $67,000 in 2025–26 and $54,435 in 2024–25, a rise of more than $15,000 in two years.
Below the threshold, no compulsory repayment is required, no matter how large the underlying debt is. Repayment income is also broader than salary. It includes:
- Taxable income excluding any assessable First Home Super Saver released amount
- Reportable fringe benefits amounts
- Total net investment loss (including net rental losses)
- Reportable super contributions
- Exempt foreign employment income amounts
Someone with a modest salary but a negatively geared rental property, for example, can have a repayment income well above their taxable income alone.
| Income year | Minimum threshold | Change on prior year |
|---|---|---|
| 2019–20 | $45,881 | - |
| 2020–21 | $46,620 | +1.6% |
| 2021–22 | $47,014 | +0.8% |
| 2022–23 | $48,361 | +2.9% |
| 2023–24 | $51,550 | +6.6% |
| 2024–25 | $54,435 | +5.6% |
| 2025–26 ★ | $67,000 | +23.1% |
| 2026–27 | $69,528 | +3.8% |
Source · Australian Taxation Office, repayment thresholds and rates page, last updated 30 June 2026.
Most of that history moved in small steps, in line with wages. Section 06 shows why 2025–26 was the exception.
Section 02 · Marginal system
How the 2026 marginal repayment system works
From 1 July 2025, compulsory HECS-HELP repayments moved to a marginal system. For most repayment incomes, only the income above the minimum threshold is charged. For the highest band, the repayment is 10% of total repayment income.
Under the old rules, crossing a threshold meant a single percentage applied to the entire repayment income. A small pay rise that pushed someone into the next band could noticeably increase their total repayment.
| Repayment income (2026–27) | Repayment on this income |
|---|---|
| $0 – $69,528 | Nil |
| $69,529 – $129,717 | 15c for every $1 over $69,528 |
| $129,718 – $186,050 | $9,028 plus 17c for every $1 over $129,717 |
| $186,051 and over | 10% of total repayment income |
Source · Australian Taxation Office, Table 1, repayment thresholds and rates page.
| Repayment income (2025–26) | Repayment on this income |
|---|---|
| $0 – $67,000 | Nil |
| $67,001 – $125,000 | 15c for every $1 over $67,000 |
| $125,001 – $179,285 | $8,700 plus 17c for every $1 over $125,000 |
| $179,286 and over | 10% of total repayment income |
Source · Australian Taxation Office, Table 2, repayment thresholds and rates page.
The bands moved up slightly for 2026–27, but the structure stayed the same: nil, then 15c, then 17c, then a flat 10% of total repayment income at the top. The 15c and 17c bands apply only to income inside those bands, while the highest band uses a flat 10% rate on total repayment income.
| Repayment income | Band | Calculation | Compulsory repayment |
|---|---|---|---|
| $86,380 | 15c band | 15% of ($86,380 − $69,528) | $2,527.80 |
| $137,064 | 17c band | $9,028 + 17% of ($137,064 − $129,717) | $10,276.99 |
| $254,780 | Top band | 10% of $254,780 | $25,478 |
Source · Australian Taxation Office, repayment thresholds and rates page.
- $821
- $75,000 a year
- $4,571
- $100,000 a year
- $12,476
- $150,000 a year
- $20,000
- $200,000 a year
Illustrative figures calculated using the published 2026–27 formula, rounded to the nearest dollar.
The repayment grows steadily as income rises through the 15% and 17% bands. Once income passes $186,050, the rate becomes 10% of total repayment income, the same top rate that applied under the old system. This is why the new rules mainly change outcomes for incomes near the threshold and in the middle bands, while making little difference for the highest repayment incomes.
Section 03 · Savings
Compulsory repayments are lower for many incomes under the new system
At a 2025–26 repayment income of $70,000, the new system reduced compulsory repayments by about $1,300 a year compared with the old rules. At $80,000, the reduction was $850 a year.
| Compulsory repayment comparison, 2025–26 rates | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Repayment income | Old system | New system | Difference |
| $70,000 | about $1,750 (2.5%) | $450 (15% of $3,000) | About $1,300 lower, government-stated comparison |
| $80,000 | $2,800 (3.5%) | $1,950 (15% of $13,000) | $850 lower per year, about $32 per fortnight |
| $179,286 and over | 10% | 10% | No change |
Source · Australian Taxation Office, repayment thresholds and rates page, and Study and training loans, what's new page.
The $80,000 figures come from the ATO's own published example. The ATO states that, before the law change, a repayment income of $80,000 would have produced a compulsory repayment of $2,800, compared with $1,950 under the new system. The $70,000 figures come from government statements and align with the 2025–26 marginal threshold calculation. The two rows are useful illustrations, but they are not calculated in the same way.
The pattern is consistent. Lower compulsory repayments are concentrated among repayment incomes just above the threshold and through the middle bands. The difference tapers to zero once repayment income reaches $179,286, where both systems reach the same 10% rate.
Australian Taxation Office and Department of Education, debt reduction and repayment threshold announcements.
Section 04 · Repayment time
The average repayment time is now nearly 10 years
The average time to repay a HELP debt in full rose from 7.3 years in 2006 to 9.9 years in 2023, an increase of about 36%.
Part of the reason repayment is taking longer is that debts themselves have grown. The average HELP debt for people in their 20s more than doubled between 2006 and 2024, from $12,600 to $31,500, a far steeper rise than the roughly 62% that inflation alone would explain. Across all debtors, the average loan debt rose from $15,200 to $24,800 over the decade to 2021–22, and reached about $27,600 by 2023–24, close to the benchmark used for the 2025 debt cut.
Section 05 · Field of study
HECS-HELP debt can vary widely by field of study
The most expensive funding cluster costs $17,399 a year, more than three times the cheapest at $4,738. There's no official table linking repayment time to field of study, but that cost gap is measurable.
Department of Education, 2026 indexed rates. Percentages calculated against the 2024 median full-time undergraduate salary of $75,000 (QILT).
Figures are the maximum annual student contribution amounts for one equivalent full-time student load in 2026.
As a share of the median graduate's full-time starting salary, the law, commerce, economics, communications and society and culture cluster equals about 23%. The nursing, education and agriculture cluster equals about 6% of that same benchmark.
This comparison uses one overall salary figure rather than a separate benchmark for each field, so it shows the scale of the contribution gap, not an exact repayment timeline. Actual starting salaries vary by field, and course cost and earning power do not always move together. Social work had a median full-time undergraduate salary of $82,000 in 2024, above the $75,000 overall undergraduate median.
Section 06 · Over time
The 2025 threshold jump was bigger than normal indexation
Since 2019–20, the minimum repayment threshold has risen 51.5%, from $45,881 to $69,528. Most annual changes in that period were much smaller. The 2025–26 change was the exception.
Under the previous formula, the 2025–26 threshold would have been $56,156, compared with the legislated $67,000 threshold. The threshold's 2025–26 jump went beyond what the earlier formula would have produced.
The threshold and indexation work differently. Indexation applies to outstanding loan balances, not to the repayment threshold. Each 1 June, the ATO increases any part of a study or training loan that has been unpaid for more than 11 months. From 2025, the rate is based on the lower of the Consumer Price Index or the Wage Price Index.
That rate has ranged from 0.6% in 2021 to 4.0% in 2024, after the 2024 rate was revised down from 4.7%. It was 2.8% in 2026, the lowest rate since 2021. The 2023 rate was also revised down from 7.1% to 3.2% after the government moved to the lower-of-CPI-or-WPI method. The Department of Education said that backdated change cut about $3 billion from outstanding student debt.
| Year | Indexation rate |
|---|---|
| 2013 | 2.0% |
| 2014 | 2.6% |
| 2015 | 2.1% |
| 2016 | 1.5% |
| 2017 | 1.5% |
| 2018 | 1.9% |
| 2019 | 1.8% |
| 2020 | 1.8% |
| 2021 | 0.6% |
| 2022 | 3.9% |
| 2023 | 3.2% (revised from 7.1%) |
| 2024 | 4.0% (revised from 4.7%) |
| 2025 | 3.2% |
| 2026 | 2.8% |
Source · Australian Taxation Office, indexation rates page, last updated 17 April 2026.
The threshold and indexation rate are governed separately. The threshold's 2025–26 jump went beyond what the earlier formula would have produced. The indexation change, by contrast, switched the loan-balance formula to the lower of CPI or WPI, applied from 2025 and backdated to 2023 and 2024.
References
- ATO Study and Training Support Loans Rates and Repayment Thresholds · ato.gov.au
- ATO: Study and training loans, what's new — 2025-26 repayment changes and the 20% debt reduction · ato.gov.au
- ATO Study and Training Support Loans Indexation Rates · ato.gov.au
- Department of Education: HELP Indexation and Debt Reduction · education.gov.au
- Department of Education: 2026 Indexed Rates · education.gov.au
- Parliamentary Library: HELP debt, the evolution of higher education contributions · aph.gov.au
- The Australia Institute: University is expensive (discussion paper) · australiainstitute.org.au
- QILT Graduate Outcomes Survey National Report 2024 · qilt.edu.au
- Higher Education Loan Program (HELP) Statistics — data.gov.au · data.gov.au