My wife has a decent sized hecs debt, and with the large indexation recently I've been considering if its worth paying it down. However she doesn't earn above the repayment threshold, and I consider it likely that she will not have paid off this debt by the time we retire.
I'm wondering if I should be concerned about the government, for example, deciding to deduct the amount owing out of her super in this case. If that's a thing that happens now or is likely something the government might change to happen in the future?
My understanding is that the wording of the government student 'loan' system is specifically that it is not a 'debt' in the traditional sense, and instead just an amount that is accrued against you which can lead to more tax to 'repay' it but otherwise will never be chased up in any other way. The fundamental idea seems to be "well if you haven't gotten value out of it - ie earned enough to have to pay it back - then you shouldn't have to pay it back"
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