Ads target parents of overseas student loan debtors
Parents of overseas student loan debtors are being targeted in advertisements launched this week.
Parents of overseas student loan debtors are being targeted in advertisements launched this week.
Parents of overseas student loan debtors are being targeted in advertisements launched this week.
Revenue Minister Peter Dunne said the ads were about getting parents or family to remind debtors that interest started accruing at a rate 6.6 percent when they went overseas.
"Interest and any non-payment penalties that are incurred can see the balance grow very quickly and that is in no one’s interests," he said.
"Parents sometimes recognise that reality more quickly than someone by now working overseas and putting their student loan to the back of their mind. As such, family can have a useful role in prompting them to start addressing their debt."
Overseas-based borrowers take up to five times longer than New Zealand-based graduates to repay their loans.
A recent Government initiative recovered $2 million in outstanding student loan debt from borrowers in Australia in the past six months.
Now Inland Revenue is also undertaking legal action again a number of Australian-based student loan defaulters, and the Government was working on a law to allow it to recall the student loans of the worst defaulters.
The Student Loan Scheme Bill would grant the Inland Revenue Commissioner the power to recall entire loan balances, Mr Dunne said.