2-year block on student loans for new migrants

[norma]

An interesting article in today's NZ Herald for those planning to study in NZ:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/ar...ectid=10639256

[ricky1981]

Sounds perfectly sensible to me, they do a similar thing in the UK I believe.

[ellenmelon]

Sounds perfectly sensible to me, they do a similar thing in the UK I believe.

In Ireland, if you're a EU resident you have to live in the country for three years to get the benefit of no fees etc. so as you said it's not an unusual thing but there are implications to doing so which they'll obviously have to look at.

Also,there are good points raised in the article around refugees and students coming from the Pacific Islands which I think will need ironing out if they do decide to have a stand down period. As student loans are currently interest free, and account for a lot of debt, National are trying to reign it in (other measures they're taking is putting a time limit on how long you can take to finish your degree). They're all about the bottom line!

[GrumpyGoat]

Until I read the article, I was under the impression that there was already a 2 year ban in place. Oops!

I would already be in school if I had known I could get an interest free loan!!

[James 1077]

Is the student loan interest-free or is it, like the UK, inflation linked so the interest rate is the rate of inflation?

[TJH]

Mrs. TJH started school a few months after our arrival and during the application process found out that we do not qualify for the student allowance until we have lived here for two years. She did qualify for a student loan the moment she arrived (we did not take one). I am not sure if it was interest free or not - we were not interested from the beginning so we did not research it.

I see no issues with this at all as I can easily see how people could take advantage of the system. We were pretty surprised that people "fresh off the boat" were able to get the loans when they asked us if we wanted to take one out. Until you have shown you are committed to living in NZ by staying around for a few years, I feel that NZ has no obligation to help you out furthering your education.

[newarrival]

The loans are interest free- every year you get a paper from IRD, where it is transferred to, where you can see that they "waive" the interest.

[elleann]

I sincerely hope this does not happen. We've been here almost 18 months now, and my son is coming to join us in a couple of months time, specifically so that he can study here in NZ instead of in SA ... if he has to live here two years before he can access a study loan, that is going to be a real bummer .. and wil mean he simply won't be able to study, because as a single parent I certainly cannot afford to pay tuition fees for him or his sister who hopes to start uni next year!