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Student Loan
A Student Loan helps to pay for your course fees, study materials (e.g. books or a computer) and weekly living costs.
You will have to pay back any amount you borrow.
To get a Student Loan, you must meet certain criteria around residency and your course. If you've had a Student Loan before, there are also extra criteria you must meet.
If you're under 18, one of your parents also needs to give their permission for you to get a loan.
Residency criteria
You need to meet the residency requirements. For most people, this means you need to be either:
- a New Zealand citizen, or
- ordinarily resident in New Zealand and have:
- lived in New Zealand for at least 3 years and
- held a residence class visa for at least 3 years.
If you don't meet this criteria, there are other residency criteria you may meet.
Your course
You must be studying an approved course run by an approved education provider (but you could be based overseas).
Your course must also have no more than 2 EFTS a year (this is around 240 points or credits).
If you've had a Student Loan before
If you've had a Student Loan before, you must also:
- meet the passing requirements
- not have exceeded the number of loans you can get.
Who can't get it
You can’t get a Student Loan if you’re:
- at secondary school
- bankrupt
- behind on your Student Loan repayments by $500 or more and overdue on repaying any of this amount by a year or more
- studying for less than 32 weeks and your course has less than 0.25 EFTS.
If you're under 18, you can't get a Student Loan if you're either:
- on a Youth Guarantee programme
- studying a fees-free level 1 or 2 qualification.
If you're studying full-time, you can get a Student Loan for:
- compulsory course fees
- course-related costs (up to $1,000 for things like books, stationery or a computer)
- living costs (up to $323.43 a week).
If you're in prison or on a benefit, you cannot get the living costs.
If you're 55 or older, you can only get a Student Loan for compulsory course fees.
If you're studying part-time, you will be limited in what you can get unless you can be classed as a full-time student.
Youth Guarantee Programme or Fees Free Level 1 and 2 qualification
You can only get a Student Loan for course-related costs and living costs if you're over 18 and studying either a:
- Youth Guarantee programme, or
- Fees Free Level 1 or 2 qualification.
You'll be charged an establishment fee
You'll be charged a one-off establishment fee of $60. This will be added to your Student Loan balance as soon as any payments are made.
We won't pay for:
- your lump sum hostel or hall of residence costs
- special charges, e.g., penalty fees for late enrolment
- administration charges for paying by instalments
- optional service fees, e.g., student association fees.
Apply as early as you can to help get your correct payments on time. Even if you haven't finalised where or what you're studying.
You can apply at any time before or during your course. If you apply after your course starts, we can only pay you from the date you submit your application.
We must receive all the documents we need before your course finishes.
You apply online. If you're studying for more than 1 year, you need to reapply for a Student Loan each year that you study.
When you apply, depending on your circumstances, you can apply for:
- compulsory course fees
- course-related costs
- living costs.
To get your course-related costs you need to claim them in MyStudyLink once we’ve received your Student Loan contract.
Applying for the first time
If you’re applying for the first time, there are a number of steps you must take.
Had a Student Loan in the last 12 months
If you’ve had a Student Loan in the last 12 months, you can apply in your MyStudyLink account.
Had a Student Loan more than 12 months ago
If you’ve had a Student Loan more than 12 months ago, you'll need to follow a different process.
You'll get a Student Loan contract which you'll need to return to us with any documents we ask for.
Once we've got everything we need from you, we'll confirm your enrolment details with your education provider. You need to be fully enrolled before we can do this.
Manage your application
You can check how your application's going, or look at your payment information, online in MyStudyLink.
When you get your payments depends on:
- when you apply
- when your course starts
- when you claim your course-related costs or request your living costs.
Your Student Loan gets transferred to Inland Revenue once:
- your Student Loan application is approved, and
- payments are made to you and/or your education provider.
Any loan repayments will go to Inland Revenue. They have rules around when you have to start paying it back to them.
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