Emma Gillespie

I'm Emma Gillespie.

I'm Billie Fitzsimons.

The HECS debt of around 3 million Australians went up by 2.8% this week and it's a system that's undergone plenty of change in recent years.

Despite that, one question remains the same.

Why do debts go up on the 1st of June?

Today, we are going to explain the changes the government has already made, what just happened to your HEX debt and why the timing of this annual increase is still being debated.

But first, we're going to hear a quick word from Abigail in the TDA team.

That's the official title.

For some reason, I'm just never going to get on board with calling it that.

I think it's like inflation.

Like inflation is the cash price index, the CPI, but we never call it CPI.

We call it inflation.

So hex debt is a kind of commonplace or colloquial term for hex help loan, but I'll keep calling it hex debt for the purposes of this podcast.

That's true.

But what we're talking about is a higher education contribution scheme loan.

That's what HECS stands for.

Under the government's higher education loan program, that is what HELP stands for.

Now, uni students in Australia have the option basically to either pay upfront for their studies or apply for a HECS loan under the HELP scheme.

A little bit of a history lesson.

In 1974 to 1989, degrees were free.