Australian HECS-HELP & student finance,
in plain English.
Estimate your HECS-HELP repayment using the official ATO schedule, model the 1 June indexation on your outstanding balance, and compare Youth Allowance, Austudy and ABSTUDY rates against your living arrangement.
- ATO bands
- 4
- Min threshold
- $67k
- Max rate
- 17%
- Tax year
- 2025-26
The short version
Repayment climbs to 17%, then flattens to 10% for top earners
You repay nothing on HECS-HELP below $67,000 of repayment income. Above it, the Australian Taxation Office withholds a marginal rate that climbs to a peak of 17%, then switches to a flat 10% of your ENTIRE repayment income above $179,285, a different calculation method for high earners, not a continued step up (the two formulas land on almost the same dollar amount right at that boundary, so there's no cliff). Each bar marks the income at which the next rate begins (FY 2025-26).
HECS-HELP compulsory repayment rate by income
Repayment income at which each whole-percent rate begins · FY 2025-26
Why PlainStudentAid
Free Australian HECS-HELP debt calculator, Centrelink Youth Allowance + Austudy estimator, and state university comparison. Built from ATO and data.gov.au public datasets.
About This Data
PlainStudentAid is a free Australian higher-education finance portal. We compile the Australian Taxation Office HECS-HELP repayment thresholds (the new marginal schedule for the 2025-26 financial year, repayments start at $67,000, with marginal rates of 15% and 17% and a flat 10% of income above $179,285), Services Australia Youth Allowance, Austudy and ABSTUDY rate tables, and the Department of Education's higher-education enrolment statistics published on data.gov.au into one searchable, calculable surface.
The HECS-HELP calculator takes your taxable income, your outstanding loan balance, your relationship and dependant status, and projects your compulsory repayment for the current tax year, alongside the indexed balance you can expect on 1 June (using the lower of CPI or WPI per the 2024 budget reform). The Centrelink estimator surfaces Youth Allowance rates by living arrangement (at home, away from home, partnered) plus the rent assistance and energy supplement adjustments.
About this data
How PlainStudentAid works, and why you can trust these numbers
What this site is
PlainStudentAid is an independent, plain-language reference for Australian HECS-HELP debt and Centrelink student payments. We combine ATO repayment thresholds, data.gov.au university enrolment statistics, and Services Australia payment rates into a single calculator and comparison tool, with every figure traceable back to the issuing agency's own published tables.
Editorial process
- Source. Pull HECS-HELP repayment thresholds and rates from the ATO, university statistics from data.gov.au, and Centrelink Youth Allowance, Austudy and ABSTUDY rates from Services Australia.
- Verify. An automated check confirms each release's row count matches the source dataset before publishing; any discrepancy is inspected against the original government source before going live.
- Publish. Every figure is rendered server-side from our database, which is itself traceable to a source row, so calculator outputs and rankings match the official tables exactly.
Editorial independence & corrections
The PlainStudentAid editorial team is independent and not affiliated with the ATO, Services Australia, the Department of Education, or any university; we accept no payment from any entity we cover. Found an error or a stale figure? File a correction via the contact page, we respond within 72 hours and publish corrections with a visible revision note. See our methodology for full source attribution and refresh cadence.
Frequently asked
What is HECS-HELP and who has to repay it?
HECS-HELP is the Australian Government loan that covers your student contribution amount for a Commonwealth Supported Place at an approved higher-education provider. You begin repaying compulsorily through the tax system once your repayment income (taxable income plus several adjustments) exceeds the ATO threshold, which for the 2025-26 financial year is $67,000 (raised from $54,435 by the 1 July 2025 reform). Repayments are now marginal: 15% of income from $67,000 to $125,000, 17% from $125,000 to $179,285, and a flat 10% of total income above $179,285.
How is HECS-HELP debt indexed each year?
Outstanding HECS-HELP balances are indexed on 1 June each year. Since the 2024 budget, indexation is calculated using the lower of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) or the Wage Price Index (WPI), measured over the year to 31 March. PlainStudentAid shows the indexed balance projection alongside your repayment schedule so you can see whether your compulsory repayments out-pace indexation in any given tax year.
Where does the data come from?
Repayment thresholds and rates come directly from the Australian Taxation Office HECS-HELP rates page. University enrolment data comes from data.gov.au (Department of Education higher-education statistics release). Centrelink Youth Allowance, Austudy and ABSTUDY rates come from Services Australia, updated each indexation cycle on 20 March and 20 September. All sources are linked in our methodology page.
Is this Australian Government advice?
No. PlainStudentAid is an independent data portal. We are not affiliated with the Australian Taxation Office, Services Australia, the Department of Education or any university. Our calculators are estimates only and do not constitute financial, tax or legal advice. Always confirm your specific repayment obligations through your myGov account linked to the ATO.