VET News

Improving the Administration of VET Student Loans

On Tuesday 9 May 2023, the Treasurer delivered the Federal Budget under the theme of Stronger foundations for a better future.

The Budget included measures for Improving the Administration of Student Loans.

As you may be aware, the VET Student Loans program’s current IT solution includes elements that have reached end-of-life, and consequently the Government has provided $42.2 million over four years to develop the first phase of a fit for-purpose, modern VSL IT System to ensure providers receive timely and correct payments. Work on the new system will commence from 1 July this year and further communications will be provided as development progresses.

Also in the budget was a measure to support the well-being of students who have been affected by the delayed transfer of VET loans to their Australian Taxation Office (ATO) accounts. To support students the Government is waiving $4.1 million in indexation. In addition, the Government is waiving $2.9 million of VET FEE-HELP loans for study prior to 2017 which were affected by the delay in the transfer of their records to the ATO.

These waivers complement measures announced on 9 November 2022 under the previous Budget to extend the VFH Student Redress scheme for 12 months and waive historical indexation valued at $1.6 million for students whose delayed VET loans transferred to students’ ATO accounts in August 2022.

Further information on this can be found at Transfer of historical loan records for VET students (dewr.gov.au).

You can read about these and other measures at Budget.gov.au | Budget 2023–24 or 2023–24 May Budget - Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, Australian Government (dewr.gov.au).

Date posted May 25, 2023