50 signatures reached
To: Treasurer Jim Chalmers
Freeze Student Debt
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Everyone is feeling the pinch of cost of living pressures. But young workers are being hit unfairly hard. We’re already the first generation worse off than our parents - priced out of buying a home and spending more and more of our wages on rent, bills, and groceries. Back young workers now and tell the Treasurer to freeze all student repayments and indexation for the next two years.
Why is this important?
On 1 June 2023, thousands of young workers’ HECS, HELP and VET student debts will increase by up to $4,000 as we face the biggest hike in decades.
This is unfair. Young workers have the highest rates of student debt and the lowest incomes. We need as much money as possible to counter the cost-of-living crisis, buy a home or start a family. We don't have a deep pool of wealth or investment properties to draw on and we’re already losing a huge chunk of our income in student loan repayments.
With the budget around the corner, now is the time to put pressure on Treasurer Jim Chalmers to make things fairer for young workers.
Long-term, if we want young workers to be able to pay off student debts fairly, we need to index them to wage growth, not inflation. This is a conversation we should be having.
But right now, Treasurer Jim Chalmers can stop the squeeze by freezing student debt repayments until the cost of living crisis is over.
How it will be delivered
Think Forward and Foundation for Young Australians will be delivering this petition to the Treasurer Jim Chalmers