The Student Financial Supplement Scheme (SFSS) was a voluntary loan scheme for tertiary students to help cover their expenses while they study

The SFSS closed on 31 December 2003 and no new loans have been issued. Existing Financial Supplement debts will continue to be collected through the tax system.

If you took out a Student Financial Supplement Loan between the years of 1993 and 2003, you are required to repay your debt. Many of these debts are still ongoing and their relative interest continues to rise. A fellow student back in 2003 advised me recently that their $7500 debt is now at close to $18000. Some others have reported the same $7500 debt has climbed to $30000. This is all prior to employer contributions (see below).

For the 2019 – 20 year your employer will start withholding SFSS if your wages exceed $882 per week.

Unfortunately, the SFSS has no provision to make any voluntary payments.

The SFSS is calculated by your pay office and the extra tax is withheld from your wages, in most cases enough that will be enough to cover your SFFS obligation when your tax return is completed.

I am calling on the Labor government to abolish this debt as all people are doing now is paying interest on loans that are 20+ years old. 

Two things about this:

1. The SFSS scheme was abolished in 2003 due to the predatory nature of how students were pressured to sign up.
2. The interest continues to rise unless your pay is greater than the figure listed above. Surprisingly when people don't complete their degree and they don't earn the above, the ATO won't take mandatory payments, but the interest will continue to rise.

From my own research, this debt has resulted in the denial of home loans and personal loans, even years after they accrue the SFSS debt.

Show some further support by going to the SFSS Class Action Grassroots page here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/226988876295990/about

I'm sharing some of the comments I've found on Facebook and other sites below, for privacy, I won't share names:

Hi . I’ve just discovered that my sfss loan is now at $30,000. With last years indexing being $1100.
I’m interested in taking action but am not on Facebook . Would you be able to email me? Part of my issue is that I can’t access records for the loan beyond 2021. I would’ve taken the loan on in 1997. Am scrambling to see if I can find any of my original paperwork.
Ultimately I would like to see all sfss debts waived and a redress scheme for those who paid them back at such exorbitant rates.
However would be ok with paying the original amount.

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My wife was a tragedy of this scheme as well. My understanding is that her pre 1995 Austudy loan was rolled over to an SFSS loan in 1998. We had negotiated and apparently made a voluntary repayment in 2001 to pay the debt off. It was not until this past year that we learned that the payment was not processed (looking into where the money went) and the CPI has doubled the loan. Any help or advice of who we can contact to discuss a 20yr old transaction would be helpful

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The SFSL was a scam and all debts owed should be removed. I was too young to even realise what I was getting myself into. The bank took my Austudy and gave it back to me as a debt. Ridiculous and this should not have happened

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Senator Trish Crossin presented this in senate November 2003:

“The booklet for the supplement makes the claim that the loan is interest-free. This is somewhat misleading, as the loan amount is indexed to the CPI, which com- mercial loan products effectively factor into their gross interest rates. In the case of the supplement loan, the effective interest rate over five years is in the order of 16 per cent per year.“

The Hansard says all…

https://www.aph.gov.au/binaries/hansard/senate/dailys/ds261103.pdf

After paying back almost $80,000 in the past 28 years I do believe that I was ripped off. Can’t believe that Labor, the Greens and Democrats wanted to keep this monstrosity going.

I have contacted Mehreen Faruqi from the Greens who approached parliament in 2019 to discuss this very issue. I am waiting for her reply. here's a link to her address to parliament: https://mehreen-faruqi.greensmps.org.au/articles/speech-student-financial-supplement-scheme

I can only hope this will become a thing of the past as if we lose, debts will continue to rise and people will continue to financially suffer, I know this first hand as I accrued this debt that at one point was close to $15000.

Thank you for signing and let's get it done.