What happens to your loan

You need to start making repayments once you earn over $19,448 a year before tax ($374 a week before tax).

You pay back your loan to Inland Revenue.

How to pay back your loan

How you make repayments depends on what kind of income you get.

If you're working, you'll need to make sure you're using the right tax code so that repayments can be deducted automatically from your pay. If you think the deductions are too high and you have more than one source of income, you may be able to apply for a special deduction rate from Inland Revenue.

If you're not working but you get other income, you'll need to fill out the required form so that Inland Revenue can work out how much you need to repay.

If you were making loan repayments from your Work and Income benefit and you're going to stay on it, you don't need to do anything. The repayments will keep coming out of your benefit.

You can also choose to make extra repayments, which means you'll pay off your loan faster.

If you haven't paid enough towards your loan

The Student Loan is interest free if you stay in New Zealand.

If you go overseas for 6 months or more, you may be charged interest.

You need to contact Inland Revenue before you leave New Zealand.

You may need to keep making Student Loan repayments to Inland Revenue, unless you can get a repayment holiday.

The Student Loan is interest free if you stay in New Zealand. If you go overseas for 6 months or more, you may be charged interest.

If you return to study in the future, there are a number of things you need to check before you complete an application for a new Student Loan.