Loading
DanyCidd(Newbie)Newbie
19 July 2024

Hi there,


Thanks so much for your help/advice. Here's my situation.


I've been actively paying my HECS off for 3 years now and it's barely gone down at all. It started at $20,000 in 2014 (as far back as records show) and now its 19,800 in 2024. Of course it went up in that time before I started paying it off properly.


However, over the last 12 months I have been paying $269/fortnight (= $6994) and I can see that the ~$5000 HELP repayment credit has been added. Yet for some reason my HECS went from $24,000 in June 2023 to 19,800 in June 2024 even though I have been paying. This seems to account for the HELP repayment, but not my own contributions.


I can't understand how this adds up... it feels like my own contributions aren't going towards it at all, yet it's not possible to see my own contributions on my MyGov, and I have asked my employer to show me a statement of my contributions as but they said I need to contact the ATO.


  • Is this right or is there something weird going on?
  • Advice - is it better to pay it all off in one go?
  • How can I see a full statement of my contributions towards my HECS debt?


Any advice you could give me would be greatly appreciated.


Thank you :)

4,657 views
3 replies
4,657 views
3 replies

Most helpful response

Most helpful reply

RileyATO(Community Moderator)Community Moderator
22 July 2024

Hi @DanyCidd,


Let's try to clear this up a bit!


It sounds like you may not have been over the repayment threshold in earlier years to start making payments and your HECS debt increases each year on 1 June due to indexation.


The fortnightly contributions don't go directly to paying your HECS. They're just extra taxes that are included with all the taxes you normally pay. They're included in your notice of assessment (NOA) under Pay as you go (PAYG) credits and other entitlements. The reason your fortnightly contributions don't equal your compulsory repayment is because:

  • your employer estimates how much extra tax they need to withhold to cover your compulsory repayment based on your earnings, and
  • your compulsory repayment is worked out as a percentage of your income. For example, if you earn $60,000 your compulsory repayment for 2024 is 2% = $1,200.


When you lodge your return, you're telling us how much income you earned and therefore we can work out how much your compulsory repayment is. At that stage, your PAYG credits are applied to your HELP loan account to cover the compulsory repayment amount. If you've had more than enough tax withheld to cover all your liabilities (like HECS, Medicare levy, etc), that's when you get a tax refund.


Your HELP loan account shows all contributions made towards your HECS and your NOA shows all your taxes withheld.


The only way to pay your HELP loan off faster is by making voluntary contributions. However, these are on top of your compulsory repayments and won't reduce them.


We have a helpful guide to Paying your HECS HELP student loan that answers a lot of common questions and will give you more details. Check it out.

All replies

Most helpful reply

RileyATO(Community Moderator)Community Moderator
22 July 2024

Hi @DanyCidd,


Let's try to clear this up a bit!


It sounds like you may not have been over the repayment threshold in earlier years to start making payments and your HECS debt increases each year on 1 June due to indexation.


The fortnightly contributions don't go directly to paying your HECS. They're just extra taxes that are included with all the taxes you normally pay. They're included in your notice of assessment (NOA) under Pay as you go (PAYG) credits and other entitlements. The reason your fortnightly contributions don't equal your compulsory repayment is because:

  • your employer estimates how much extra tax they need to withhold to cover your compulsory repayment based on your earnings, and
  • your compulsory repayment is worked out as a percentage of your income. For example, if you earn $60,000 your compulsory repayment for 2024 is 2% = $1,200.


When you lodge your return, you're telling us how much income you earned and therefore we can work out how much your compulsory repayment is. At that stage, your PAYG credits are applied to your HELP loan account to cover the compulsory repayment amount. If you've had more than enough tax withheld to cover all your liabilities (like HECS, Medicare levy, etc), that's when you get a tax refund.


Your HELP loan account shows all contributions made towards your HECS and your NOA shows all your taxes withheld.


The only way to pay your HELP loan off faster is by making voluntary contributions. However, these are on top of your compulsory repayments and won't reduce them.


We have a helpful guide to Paying your HECS HELP student loan that answers a lot of common questions and will give you more details. Check it out.

Liked by DanyCidd
DanyCidd(Newbie)Newbie
24 July 2024

Hi RileyATO,


Thanks so much for responding to my question. I had no idea none of my contributions go towards my HECS, I've been paying extra through my work to pay it off faster.


I lived overseas and wasn't above the threshold until 2021, when I started paying, what I thought was, extra.


Am I understanding you right that, my tax refund will be any extra contributions I've paid towards my HECS through my tax, rather than doing the voluntary contributions manually outside of my work?


Meaning I've only been paying the minimum contributions the past three years?


Thanks,



Featured articles

20% reduction of HECS-HELP and other student debts

6 Feb 2026 · 3 min read time

Paying my HECS HELP student loan

13 May 2026 · 4 min read time

Linking your myGov account to the ATO

24 Aug 2025 · 3 min read time

Top liked users

  1. Bruce4Tax

    (Taxicorn)

    3260 likes

  2. Taxduck

    (Taxicorn)

    2069 likes

  3. PayrollDeanne

    (Taxicorn)

    816 likes

  4. YellowPotato

    (Taxicorn)

    529 likes

  5. knaresbro

    (Devotee)

    364 likes

Top contributors

  1. Bruce4Tax

    (Taxicorn)

    10399contributions

  2. Taxduck

    (Taxicorn)

    4762contributions

  3. PayrollDeanne

    (Taxicorn)

    2061contributions

  4. YellowPotato

    (Taxicorn)

    1352contributions

  5. YEP

    (Devotee)

    837contributions

Loading
HECS debt is not going down despite regular payments | ATO Community