When I graduated, little did I know that I would not pay off my HECS debt until I was 52. That is largely because of HECS debt indexation, which doubled my debt while I spent time out of the workforce raising my family.

HECS-HELP indexation affects all Australians with a HECS debt. With rising inflation, the HECS debts are likely to be indexed at a high rate once again, causing many people's HECS debts to increase by thousands of dollars overnight on June 1st. 

Indexation adds to the economic disadvantage of women as it tends to take them longer to pay off their debt because of lower incomes and time off for raising families. This means that women are unequally impacted by the annual indexation which raises their principal debt. This leads to a spiral of debt, as the principal debt grows, the percentage of indexation is more keenly felt.

Indexation is currently applied on June 1st - just before the ATO apply the annually collected contributions from the PAYE taxation, which would significantly decrease the principal debt. In other words, the ATO are holding onto your money - NOT applying it to your debt, and then indexing you on the maximum amount that they can, while simultaneously holding onto your payments made throughout the year.

We need to freeze the practice of indexation before June 1 2024.