By Tony Reid
It's estimated 150,000 Kiwis live in London at any one time.
Paying off the student loan usually isn't high on the things to do list.
But that's about to change.
“There's a responsibility for people to actually meet their commitments and pay off their loans wherever they are around the world while they are earning money,” says Tertiary Education Minister Steven Joyce.
New Zealanders owe a whopping $11b in student loans.
$2.3b is owed by people living overseas.
They pay nothing for the first three years abroad under the student loan repayment "holiday".
“We're not looking to remove that completely but we are looking at reducing it substantially,” says Mr Joyce.
That could be as low as one year.
Other areas being looked at include the $30m a year in student loans given to trainee pilots.
The government writes off $0.60 for these loans because many of them never fly commercially.
The over-55s are not very good at repaying their loans either. The May budget may see them lose their right to take out loans for living costs.
“We're really concerned about what this will mean for learners over 55, many of whom are people who have lost their jobs in the recession seeking to retrain and educate themselves to get a new job,” says David Do of the NZ University Students’ Association.
Debt collectors have been used in Australia to chase up people with loans. That looks to be rolled out in other countries too.
Steven Joyce's student loan crackdown could bring in up to $400m in the next four years.
The one area that remains a no go is the re-introduction of interest on student loans.
National promised not to go there, and they won't budge on that yet.
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