Student Loan changes from April 2012
21 February 2012
Changes are happening from April 2012 to improve how you manage and repay your Student Loan, and how it’s administered.
From April 2012 StudyLink will be transferring Student Loan information to Inland Revenue on a daily basis. This means you'll be able to view all of your loan balance in one place through Inland Revenue’s online services – you need to register for an Inland Revenue online services account to do this.
You can still use MyStudyLink to update your application, view your future payments and your last 10 transactions. You won't be able to request a loan statement or view your loan balance through MyStudyLink, but MyStudyLink will link you to Inland Revenue’s website to view your loan balance using their online services.
StudyLink will continue to administer your loan application and payments. This means you will still apply for your Student Loan with StudyLink and we’ll still make all your fees, living cost and course-related costs payments. Once the payments are made we will transfer the information to Inland Revenue. You will also receive Student Loan statements twice a year from Inland Revenue, and these will include your StudyLink transactions.
Other changes affecting Student Loan borrowers are coming into effect from April 2012 include the following:
- Student Loan borrowers must generally add ‘SL’ to their tax code and have Student Loan deductions when they earn above the pay-period threshold, eg $367 a week.
- Repayments made per pay period will be considered your repayment obligation unless there’s a significant over- or under-deduction.
- Exemptions from repayment deductions for full-time students
- Reduced rates for secondary employment
- Annual administration fee.
For more information on these changes visit Inland Revenue’s website www.ird.govt.nz/studentloans/guide/changes/
