Introductory Info
Date introduced: 28 March 2018
House: House of Representatives
Portfolio: Education and Training
Commencement: Most of the amendments commence on 1 July 2019. Contingent amendments are dependent on the commencement of the Higher Education Support Legislation Amendment (Student Loan Sustainability) Bill 2018.Purpose of
the Bills
The purpose of the Education and Other Legislation
Amendment (VET Student Loan Debt Separation) Bill 2018 (the VSL Separation Bill)
is to amend the VET
Student Loans Act 2016 (the VSL Act) and the Higher Education
Support Act 2003 (HESA) to establish VET Student Loans (VSL) as
a separate program under the VSL Act.[1]
The purpose of the Student Loans (Overseas Debtors
Repayment Levy) Amendment Bill 2018 (the Overseas Debtors Bill) is to amend the
Student Loans
(Overseas Debtors Repayment Levy) Act 2015 to ensure arrangements for Higher
Education Loan Program (HELP) debtors living overseas, which currently apply to
VSL debts under HESA, continue to apply to VSL debtors if the proposed
separation of VSL goes forward.[2]
The VSL Separation Bill also proposes consequential
amendments to a range of other Commonwealth legislation, as discussed in the Key
issues and provisions section of the Digest.
The VSL Separation Bill also contains an additional
proposal to amend the VSL Act to allow the courses and loan caps
determination, which specifies which courses are eligible for VSL (currently
the VET Student
Loans (Courses and Loan Caps) Determination 2016),
to refer to courses listed on the National Register (the Register).
Background
The
foundations of income contingent loans for vocational education and
training—VET FEE-HELP
Income contingent loans for VET courses were first introduced
as part of the HELP program as VET FEE-HELP in 2007 for study in 2008. The
initial aim of the VET FEE-HELP sub-scheme was to provide support for courses
which were pathways to higher education, but loans were extended to all diploma-and-above
VET courses from 2012.[3]
Although a loan fee was applied to VET FEE-HELP borrowers whose courses were
not subsidised under state or territory government schemes, and the FEE-HELP
lifetime borrowing limit applied, these measures did not control rapid growth
in borrowing under the program or unscrupulous provider behaviour.[4]
According to the Department of Education and Training
(DET), between 2009 and 2015:
The numbers of students accessing VET FEE-HELP jumped by
5,000 per cent, from 5,262 to 272,000.
Average course costs more than tripled, from around $4,000 to
$14,000.
The value of loans landing as debts to students, and as
Commonwealth borrowings, blew out from $26 million to $2.9 billion.[5]
From 2015 a number of changes were legislated to improve
the monitoring and enforcement capabilities of DET and the national VET
regulator, the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA).[6]
Changes included banning inducements, limiting allowable marketing and
recruitment practices, clarifying student rights and obligations, and
introducing stricter provider eligibility and charging requirements and a civil
penalty regime.[7]
The
establishment and administration of VET Student Loans
Despite some arguments that the problems with VET FEE-HELP
arose from insufficient enforcement rather than poor program design, the
reforms to income contingent loans for VET culminated in the replacement of VET
FEE-HELP with VSL from 1 January 2017.[8]
While retaining the VET FEE-HELP loan fee arrangements and borrowing limit, the
VSL Act and VET
Student Loans Rules 2016 (the VSL Rules) established limited terms of eligibility
for courses, providers and students. These limitations aimed to:
... limit eligibility to courses that have high national
priority, meet industry needs, contribute to addressing skills shortages and
align with strong employment outcomes. This ensures the Government’s investment
in VET is better targeted, and large loan amounts are no longer paid for
courses that have limited public good or opportunities for employment; for
example naturopathy, energy healing, and veterinary acupuncture.[9]
Under section 16 of the VSL Act, the VET Student Loans
(Courses and Loan Caps) Determination 2016 sets out eligible courses
and course borrowing limits, which are indexed each year from 2018. The 2018 course
borrowing limits are $5,075, $10,150, and $15,225, with a separate $76,125 limit
for aviation courses.[10]
Courses are listed in the Determination if they are current
(in other words, not superseded) and; are subsidised by at least two states or
territories, or if they are a science, technology, engineering or mathematics
(STEM) course (as defined by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and the
Office of the Chief Scientist in recent publications). Following consultations,
the Government also added courses to the Determination that provide
qualifications required under state or territory occupational licencing laws.[11]
Limits on how much can be borrowed for each course aim to
place downward pressure on how much providers charge, although this can also
mean students need to find a way to meet the cost of any charges above the limit.[12]
At the same time, the total amount an eligible student is able to borrow is
limited by the FEE-HELP lifetime borrowing limit under paragraph 8(b) of the VSL
Act, the limit being $127,992 for medicine, dentistry and veterinary
science students and $102,392 for other students in 2018.[13]
Limits also apply to course providers as set out in Part
4, Division 1 of the VSL Act and in the VSL Rules. Prospective providers
must apply to the Secretary of the relevant department (currently DET) for
approval to offer VSL.[14]
The basis
of the commitment to separate VET Student Loans
The Government has committed to continued monitoring and
evaluation of the performance of VSL, with early signs that changes have led to
improved outcomes.[15]
The initial review of the program in February 2017 found:
There was no compelling evidence to warrant significant
change to the loan cap amounts at this early stage of the program. The
Government will continue to monitor the operation of the program and explore
the possibility for some minor adjustments once more data becomes available.[16]
The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) is currently
undertaking a performance audit of the design and implementation of VSL, with
the report due to table in October 2018.[17]
However, such efforts are arguably hampered by the way VSL
debts are recorded and reported. While a range of administrative and
statistical data is collected and published for the program, covering student
demographics, course enrolments, course completions, and VSL and tuition fees, the
amount of outstanding debt is bundled into overall HELP debt.[18]
This means statements to debtors, information in the budget papers about the
total amount of outstanding debt, as well as ATO statistics about the size of
outstanding debts and the time people take to repay, are only available for the
HELP program overall, not by sub-scheme.[19]
Therefore, the Mid-year
Economic and Fiscal Outlook 2017–18 (MYEFO) included a commitment to separate
the administration and reporting of Vocational Education and Training (VET)
Student Loans from the rest of HELP, stating:
... from 1 July 2019, students will be better informed, with
any VSL repayment requirements displayed separately on correspondence from the
Australian Taxation Office. This measure will also enhance the Government's
ability to analyse information on the value of student loans and repayments.[20]
Beyond the specific challenges of income contingent loans
for VET, recent HELP legislation more broadly has been characterised by a
concern with the sustainability of student loans and challenges around the
different levels of debt not expected to be repaid (DNER) between VET and
higher education borrowers.[21]
Committee
consideration
Senate
Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Bills
As discussed further in Key issues and provisions, below,
Division 3 of proposed Part 3A of the VSL Act (at item 20 of Schedule 1
to the VSL Separation Bill) will duplicate the arrangements in place for HELP
debt liability for a person who is a foreign resident during an income year, so
that these obligations will also apply to people with VETSL debts. Within Division
3 of proposed Part 3A, proposed section 23ED requires a person with a
VETSL debt to notify the Commissioner of Taxation if they will be overseas for
at least 183 days and advise their income (including foreign-sourced income). Proposed
section 23FE provides that a failure to comply with section 23ED will be dealt
with under Part III of the Taxation
Administration Act 1953 (TAA 1953), as if section 23ED
were a taxation law. Part III of the TAA 1953 deals with prosecutions
and offences and provides, at section 8C that a failure to comply with a
taxation law by, as currently relevant, failing to provide documents or
information to the Commissioner as required, is an offence of absolute
liability. This means that the prosecution is not required to prove any fault elements
and the defence of mistake of fact is not available.[22]
However, subsection 8C(1B) of the TAA 1953 provides that an offence is
not committed to the extent that the person is not capable of complying with
the information provision requirement. Under section 8E of the TAA 1953,
a repeat offender could receive a sentence of imprisonment of up to 12 months
for an offence against section 8C.
The Senate Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Bills
requested the Assistant Minister’s detailed justification for appropriateness
of applying absolute liability to a breach of proposed section 23ED of the VSL
Act and questioned whether it would be more appropriate to apply strict
liability, rather than absolute liability, and provide that the offence is
subject only to a pecuniary, rather than custodial, penalty.[23]
Although the proposed section is consistent with the provisions already in HESA,
the Committee has stated that this is not sufficient justification.[24]
The Assistant Minister responded to the Committee’s concerns on 29 May 2018, advising
that it was considered appropriate to apply absolute liability to proposed
section 23ED as requiring fault to be proved would ‘undermine the deterrence
factor’, which supports ‘self-regulation and integrity in the tax system’.[25]
The Assistant Minister advised that it would not be appropriate to apply strict
liability to proposed section 23ED as ‘there cannot be a mistaken belief about
the facts relating to the physical elements of the offence’.[26]
Dealing with breaches of proposed section 23ED under Part III of the TAA
1953 ensures that ‘the Australian Taxation Office can administer the
provisions in line with broader provisions for administering HELP and taxation
arrangements’.[27]
The Assistant Minister undertook to table an addendum to the Explanatory
Memorandum to explain the issues.[28]
The Committee thanked the Assistant Minister for his
response and welcomed his undertaking to provide an addendum to the Explanatory
Memorandum. The Committee drew its scrutiny concerns to the attention of
senators.[29]
The Committee had no comment on the Overseas Debtors Bill.[30]
Senate Education
and Employment Legislation Committee
The Bills were referred to the Senate Education and
Employment Legislation Committee for inquiry and report. The Committee received
seven submissions and reported on 15 June 2018, recommending the Senate pass
the Bills.[31]
Details are available at the inquiry
homepage and summarised below.
Policy
position of non-government parties/independents
Both Labor and the Australian Greens state in the Committee
report that they support the Bills’ aim to increase the transparency of student
loans.[32]
However, Labor Senators raise concerns about insufficient
funding of the VET sector and the history of unscrupulous providers profiting under
VET FEE-HELP. The Labor recommendation states:
Labor Senators call on the government to adopt Labor’s policy
and undertake a comprehensive and systematic review of the student loan system
as part of a root and branch inquiry into the post-secondary education system.
Only then can the underlying problems in the vocational education and training
system, and the associated funding inequities, be brought to light and
resolved.[33]
The Australian Greens do not make a separate
recommendation, but note concerns about privatisation in the VET sector, as
well as the repayment order proposed in the VSL Separation Bill, stating:
There appears to be no justification for why VET loans should
be sequenced for repayment only after other HELP debts have been repaid. As
noted in the submission by the Pro Vice-Chancellor of VET Operations and Growth
at the CQUniversity, Mr Peter Helibuth, it would be simpler to have students
repay their debts in the order they were incurred.[34]
This suggestion and the referenced submission from
CQUniversity is discussed further below.
Position of
major interest groups
The only submission to the Inquiry to express unreserved
support for the Bills was from Australian Industry Group (Ai Group). Ai Group’s
submission states:
Ai Group agrees with the intent of the two bills to separate
reporting and monitoring of VET loans from other student loans. This will
provide better data about general take-up, and the rate at which repayments are
being made. The data can also be useful in providing information about which
courses are repaid more quickly than others, and which courses and which
disciplines are slow to provide the outcomes that allow individuals’ wages to
rise to repayment thresholds. All of these aspects available through the
disaggregated data will be important in the formulation of new policy,
particularly with regard to eligible courses in the future.[35]
TAFE Directors Australia (TDA) raises the issue of equality
between TAFEs and universities and their respective students, and proposes
amending the VSL Separation Bill to:
- remove
the 20 per cent loan fee that currently applies to VET Student Loans borrowers
who are not subsidised by their state or territory government, on the basis
that no loan fee applies to HECS-HELP students at universities (although it
should be noted that a 25 per cent loan fee currently also applies to students
who borrow for undergraduate higher education courses through FEE‑HELP,
typically for study at non-university higher education providers)[36]
- extend
the tuition assurance exemption that currently applies to universities to TAFE
providers, on the basis that they are subject to significant oversight by state
and territory governments and are also large public providers—tuition assurance
protects VET Student Loans students in the event that their provider is unable
to deliver their course.[37]
These are not issues that are directly addressed in the current
Bills.[38]
TDA also raises concerns about the repayment order proposed
in the VSL Separation Bill, which would mean VETSL debts would be repaid only
after any HELP debt is fully repaid. Although not proposing an amendment to
address this, TDA suggests if the intent is to improve transparency of the
student loan programs, one unintended consequence of the proposed repayment
order would be to inflate the time to repay for VETSL as a consequence of
debtors with both HELP and VETSL debt needing to repay HELP first.[39]
TDA suggests this should be carefully noted in order to avoid damage to the
reputation of VETSL in later years, if its outcomes are measured against HELP.
On the basis of its experience as a dual sector provider,
with students moving between higher education and VET, as an alternative to the
proposed repayment order CQUniversity recommends student loan debts be repaid
in the order in which they are incurred.[40]
Open Colleges, a distance and online provider, also raises concerns about the
proposed repayment order and recommends repayments should occur in the order in
which the debt is incurred.[41]
It is not clear if, or how readily, this could be achieved by DET and the ATO.
There are a range of complexities that could be considered
in the ordering of student loan debt repayments, including average size of debts,
the number of people with debts under multiple schemes, and the complexity of repayment
arrangements. However, there is no clearly articulated policy logic for the
current or proposed repayment order, and with repayment thresholds and rates for
each scheme either identical or proposed to become identical in the near future,
it is unclear what policy benefit one repayment order has over another.[42]
According to Mark Warburton, formerly of DET and now Honorary
Fellow, Melbourne Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne, this
point goes to the much larger issue of the legislative and administrative
complexity created by adding to the current suite of student loan schemes:
The creation and ordering of debt pots is likely to make it
more difficult to understand what is going on because many people have debts in
multiple pots. It would not be uncommon for a person to have a debt in the HELP
pot, the VETSL pot and the pot for Student Start-up debt. In 2014, nearly
42,000 people who had a bachelor degree or higher qualification completed a VET
qualification. There are also thousands of people who complete a VET
qualification and subsequently enrol in a higher education course.[43]
Professor John Quiggin, Australian Laureate Fellow in
Economics at the University of Queensland, supports the proposed separation of
VETSL from HELP only ‘as a temporary measure, necessitated by past policy
failures.’[44]
Ultimately, he argues, ‘VET and Higher Education should be combined into a
single national system, funded by the Commonwealth.’[45]
Financial
implications
According to the Explanatory
Memorandum to the VSL Separation Bill:
The measure to separate VET student loans debts from other
forms of HELP debts will cost $2.1 million over four years from 2017-18 for the
Department of Education and Training to support the required IT changes at the
Australian Taxation Office and Department of Education and Training.[46]
Statement of Compatibility with Human Rights
As required under Part 3 of the Human Rights
(Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011 (Cth), the Government has assessed the
Bills’ compatibility with the human rights and freedoms recognised or declared
in the international instruments listed in section 3 of that Act. The
Government considers that the Bills are compatible.[47]
Parliamentary
Joint Committee on Human Rights
The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights considers
that the Bills do not raise human rights concerns.[48]
Key issues
and provisions
VSL
Separation Bill Schedule 1—Separation of VET Student Loan debts from HELP debts
As a replacement for VET FEE-HELP, VSL is currently a HELP
sub‑scheme with student debt accrued and managed under HESA
alongside the other income contingent loan sub-schemes, which are available to
students in the higher education sector.[49]
This means VSL debt is HELP debt, which is made up of all debt incurred under
all HELP sub‑schemes. For example, a student who borrowed $20,000 through
HECS-HELP for an undergraduate university degree and then $5,000 through VET
Student Loans for an additional vocational qualification would have a $25,000
HELP debt (assuming no loan fee had been charged and no repayments had yet been
made, and leaving aside the effect of indexation). Australian Taxation Office
(ATO) reporting (both to the debtor and more broadly in statistical
collections) is of this total HELP debt only. Likewise, the projected amount of
HELP debt in the budget papers is not disaggregated to sub-scheme level.
The only exception to the consolidated reporting on HELP
debts is the Australian Government Actuary (AGA) assessments of DNER, which,
following the rapid increases in VET FEE-HELP borrowings, began to make a case
that VET loans would have a higher level of DNER, not only because of
inappropriately issued debts resulting from unscrupulous provider behaviour,
but also because of the lower average incomes expected of VET course
completers, meaning a greater proportion of debtors may not reach the minimum
income threshold at which repayments would become compulsory.[50]
At 30 June 2017, the overall AGA DNER estimate for HELP was 25 per cent, but
only 18 per cent if VET loans are excluded.[51]
Schedule 1 of the VSL Separation Bill proposes to amend HESA
and the VSL Act to create post-1 July 2019 VSL (referred to as VETSL in
the proposed amendments) as a separate program under the VSL Act.
Items 1 to 12 amend HESA to define VSL debts
incurred as HELP debt before 1 July 2019 as ‘pre-1 July 2019 VSL debts’.
The meaning of pre-1 July 2019 VSL debt is inserted by item
7, which will repeal subsections 137–19(1), (2) and (3), which currently specify
how VSL debt is incurred as HELP debt, and substitute subsection 137–19(1) which
states: ‘A debt incurred under this section as in force any time before 1 July
2019 is a pre-1 July 2019 VSL debt.’
Item 4 adds a note at the end of section 134–1,
which summarises Part 4–1 (which outlines how HELP debts are incurred) clarifying
‘if the Secretary uses an amount of a VET student loan approved under the VET
Student Loans Act 2016 to pay tuition fees for a person on or after 1 July
2019, the person incurs a debt under that Act.’
This means ‘pre-1 July 2019 VSL debts’, like VET FEE-HELP
debts, would remain under HESA, with reporting and repayment
arrangements as set out under that Act.
Items 13 to 23 amend the VSL Act to remove
references to VSL debt as HELP debt and add arrangements for loans made under
the VSL Act on or after 1 July 2019, referred to as ‘VETSL debt’ to be
subject to repayment arrangements consistent with current arrangements for HELP
debts under HESA.
Item 13 omits the reference to HELP debt under HESA
from the outline of the VSL Act at section 5, and substitutes the
following description of VETSL debt: ‘These debts are generally repayable
through the tax system once the person’s income exceeds the minimum repayment
income under the Higher Education Support Act 2003 and the person has
finished repaying any debt under that Act.’ This means VETSL repayments would
commence only after a person has fully repaid any outstanding HELP debt.
Item 15 proposes to add a number of definitions to section
6 of the VSL Act. Most duplicate relevant material from Schedule 1 of HESA,
such as ‘Medicare levy means Medicare levy imposed by the
Medicare Levy Act 1986’ or specify a term has the same meaning as in HESA
(this is the case for assessed worldwide income,
for example, which will have the meaning given by section 154‑17 of HESA).
However, six new definitions are proposed, relating to the accumulation,
compulsory repayment amounts and repayable VETSL debt. The new definitions
refer to proposed sections 23EA, 23EC and 23EE, and subsections
23BA(1), 23CB(1), 23CC(1) and 23EB(1), as discussed below at item
20.
Item 16 repeals the definition of VET Student Loan
debt at section 6, which is no longer needed if the abovementioned definitions
of ‘pre-1 July 2019 VSL debt’ and ‘VETSL debt’ are adopted.
Item 17 proposes to insert a new definition of
voluntary repayment specific to VETSL debt:
... voluntary repayment means a payment made to
the Commissioner in discharge of an accumulated VETSL debt or a VETSL debt. It
does not include a payment made in discharge of a compulsory VETSL repayment
amount.
This proposed definition is consistent with the definition
of voluntary repayment applicable to HELP debt under HESA.[52]
Item 18 repeals and replaces the note at subsection
19(4), which currently explains ‘If the Secretary uses a loan amount to pay
tuition fees for a student, the student incurs a VET student loan debt’ under HESA.
The two proposed notes insert an equivalent reference to VETSL debt under the VSL
Act, and explain debt incurred prior to 1 July 2019 will remain under HESA:
Note 1: If the Secretary uses a loan amount to pay
tuition fees for a student, the student incurs a VETSL debt under
section 23BA.
Note 2: If the Secretary used a loan amount to pay
tuition fees for a student before 1 July 2019, the student will have
incurred a debt under section 137‑19 of the Higher Education
Support Act 2003 as then in force. Those debts are managed under that Act
as HELP debts.
Item 19 updates subsection 22(1) (note 2) to
clarify that VET student loan debt that is remitted under section 22 of the VSL
Act is ‘taken to be remitted to the extent to which the debt relates to the
loan amount concerned’, which is provided for under proposed section 23BA
for VETSL debt and under the amended section 137-19 of HESA for ‘pre-1
July 2019 VSL debt’. This is an update to clarify how requirements for course
providers to repay debt are to be dealt with for the two proposed categories of
VSL debt—in either case the FEE-HELP balance is re-credited the amount of the
relevant loan that the provider is required to repay.
Item 20 inserts proposed Part 3A into the VSL
Act, setting out arrangements for VETSL debts:
- Proposed
section 23BA sets out how a VETSL debt is incurred, duplicating
arrangements that currently apply for VSL debts under section 137–19 of HESA.
- Proposed
section 23BB sets out that the VETSL debt is discharged by death,
duplicating arrangements that currently apply for VSL debts under section 137–20
of HESA.
- Proposed
section 23BC provides that the Secretary must give the Commissioner (of
Taxation) a notice specifying the amount of VETSL debt incurred—this differs
from current arrangements under HESA, which under section 154–55 only requires
higher education providers and Open University Australia to provide the
Commissioner with information relating to students who have applied for HELP
loans for higher education.
- Proposed
sections 23CA, 23CB and 23CC set out how VETSL debts are worked out,
in line with arrangements under sections 140–5 and 140–25 of HESA for
working out former accumulated and accumulated HELP debt.
- Proposed
section 23CD duplicates technical arrangements from section 140–30 HESA
in relation to rounding of debts (they are ‘rounded down’ to the nearest whole
dollar, including to zero dollars if the amount is less than one dollar).
- Proposed
section 23CE duplicates technical arrangements from section 140–35 of HESA
in relation to replacement of the previous year’s accumulated VETSL debt with
the amount worked out for the current year.
- Proposed
section 23CF duplicates arrangements under section 140–40 of HESA for
the discharge of debts on death.
- Proposed
sections 23DA, 23DB and 23DC duplicate sections 151–1, 151–10 and
151–15 of HESA, setting out arrangements for voluntary repayments of
debt.
- Proposed
sections 23EA and 23EB set out compulsory VETSL repayment
arrangements. While the technical detail of these in relation to liability to
repay and repayment income duplicate arrangements for HELP debt under sections
154–1, 154–5 154–10 and 154–15 of HESA, proposed subsection 23EA(1)
specifies the VETSL repayment liability will be reduced by the relevant income
contingent loans liability, which is the ‘sum of any amounts the person is liable
to pay under section 154–1 or 154–16 of the Higher Education Support Act
2003 in respect of the income year.’ This means someone with both an
accumulated VETSL debt and an accumulated HELP debt, including if they resided
overseas during the income year, will commence VETSL repayments only once the
HELP debt is discharged. This gives rise to the need for contingent amendments
to handle changes to repayment order proposed in the Higher
Education Support Legislation Amendment (Student Loan Sustainability) Bill 2018
(the Student Loan Sustainability Bill). These are discussed below.
- Proposed
sections 23EC and 23ED duplicate the arrangements in place for HELP
debt liability for a person who is a foreign resident during an income year under
sections 154–16, 154–17 and 154–18 of HESA, for VETSL debtors under the
same circumstances. Currently, HELP repayments for overseas debtors are imposed
as a levy under the Student
Loans (Overseas Debtors Repayment Levy) Act 2015 (the Overseas
Debtors Repayment Levy Act). The Overseas Debtors Bill amends this Act in
line with the proposed section 23EC, as discussed below.
- Proposed
sections 23EE to 23EH duplicate HESA sections 154–35, 154–40,
154–45 and 154–50 in relation to arrangements for the Commissioner of Taxation
to make assessments of HELP debt, for VETSL debt. This makes separate
assessments of HELP and VETSL debts possible, with debtors advised of each
figure.
- Proposed
sections 23FA to 23FF duplicate the arrangements in HESA in sections
154–60, 154–65, 154–70, 154–80, 154–90, and 238–8 in relation to the
application of tax legislation, empowering the Commissioner of Taxation to
recover VETSL debts through the taxation system as is currently the case for
HELP.
Technical,
consequential and contingent amendments
Part 2 of Schedule 1 to the Bill makes a number of
technical, consequential and contingent amendments to the following
Commonwealth legislation:
The contingent amendments are required to take into account
proposals in the Higher
Education Support Legislation Amendment (Student Loan Sustainability) Bill 2018.
The details of all the student loan programs and the proposals in the Student
Loan Sustainability Bill are set out in the Higher
Education Support Legislation Amendment (Student Loan Sustainability) Bill 2018
digest.
In summary, currently, HELP debt is repaid before Student
Start-up Loan (SSL) and Trade Support Loan (TSL) debts, but concurrently with Student
Financial Supplement Scheme (SFSS) debts, which have their own repayment
thresholds and rates as set out in the Social Security Act
1991.[53]
In relation to this:
- Schedule
1 of the Student Loan Sustainability Bill proposes to amend the Social
Security Act to harmonise the SFSS repayment thresholds and rates with
those already in place for other student loan programs, including HELP, under HESA
- Schedule
2 of the Student Loan Sustainability Bill proposes to amend the Social
Security Act, Student
Assistance Act 1973 and Trade Support Loans
Act 2014 to add SFSS debts to the repayment order arrangements already
in place for other student loan programs, ensuring SFSS debts are no longer
repaid concurrently with other student loans.[54]
Since the VSL Separation Bill proposes to create a fifth
category of student loan debt—VETSL debt—it proposes to address the complexities
it introduces to the changes to repayment order proposed by the Student Loan
Sustainability Bill:
- If
Schedule 1 of the Higher Education Support Legislation Amendment (Student
Loan Sustainability) Act 2018 (Student Loan Sustainability Act) commences
by 1 July 2019, the VSL Separation Bill proposes to make no changes to the
repayment thresholds and rates for the SFSS, which will be amended by the
Student Loan Sustainability Bill to begin using the HELP repayment thresholds
and rates from 1 July 2019 for the 2019–20 income year.[55]
- If
Schedule 2 of the Student Loan Sustainability Act commences on 1 July
2019, as provided in clause 2 of the Student Loan Sustainability Bill as passed,
the VSL Separation Bill proposes to add reference to VETSL debt after HELP debt
in the definition of ‘relevant income‑contingent loans liability’ in each
Act:
- item 39 inserts the reference into subsection 1061ZVHA(1)
of the Social Security Act
- item
45 inserts the reference into subsection 10F(1) of the Student Assistance
Act and
- item
71 inserts the reference into subsection 46(1) of the Trade Support
Loans Act.
This would mean VETSL debt is included in the repayment
order for student loan debts, making the order following amendments resulting
from both Bills: HELP, VETSL, SFSS, SSL, ABSTUDY SSL and TSL.
- If
Schedule 2 of the Student Loan Sustainability Act does not commence on 1
July 2019, the VSL Separation Bill proposes to add VETSL debt to definitions of
‘relevant income contingent loans liability’ after HELP in each Act. Where the
relevant definition is currently ‘HELP liability’, the VSL Separation Bill
proposes to replace this with a definition of ‘relevant income contingent loans
liability’ which includes HELP then VETSL. The result of these proposed
amendments would be to create the following repayment order: HELP, VETSL, SSL,
ABSTUDY SSL, and TSL.
This means if Schedules 1 and 2 of the Student Loan
Sustainability Act do not commence as set out in the Student Loan
Sustainability Bill, SFSS debts will remain separate from the other
student loan programs as they are currently, with their own repayment
thresholds and rates, and the requirement that they be repaid concurrently with
other income contingent loans will continue. However, if this occurs and
Schedule 1 of the VSL Separation Bill commences, VETSL will be included in the
repayment order after HELP but before other income contingent loans.
Overseas
Debtors Bill—application of the overseas debtors repayment levy to VETSL debt
From 1 January 2016, under HESA and the Overseas
Debtors Repayment Levy Act, a person with a HELP debt who is a foreign
resident during an income year is required to:
- report
total worldwide income (which includes Australian-sourced and foreign-sourced
income) to the Commissioner of Taxation (through the ATO)
- pay
the overseas levy, which is equal to the difference between the total repayment
obligation assessed on the person’s worldwide income, and any compulsory HELP
repayments already paid or assessed on Australian-sourced income.[56]
The effect of this is that someone with a HELP debt who is
a foreign resident during an income year has the same HELP liability, and is
required to repay the same amount through the Australian tax system, as if they
had not resided overseas.
Amendments to the VSL Act to apply these same
responsibilities to VETSL debtors are included in proposed sections 23EC to
23EH at item 20 of the VSL Separation Bill, as discussed above.
In the single Schedule of the Overseas Debtors Bill, items
1 to 3 propose technical amendments to the Overseas Debtors
Repayment Levy Act to insert references to debts under section 23EC of the VSL
Act—that is, a VETSL loan liability held by a person who is a
foreign resident during an income year. The effect of this is to allow VETSL
repayments to be charged as a levy under the Overseas Debtors Repayment Levy
Act in the same way as HELP repayments for overseas debtors are currently
charged.
VSL
Separation Bill Schedule 2—course and loan caps determination
The VSL Separation Bill also
proposes to amend the VSL Act to allow the courses and loan caps
determination, currently the VET Student Loans
(Courses and Loan Caps) Determination 2016, to allow the determination to apply,
adopt or incorporate an instrument, with or without modification, as in force
or existing from time to time. The Explanatory Memorandum provides that the
intention is for the determination to nominate courses of study for which VET
student loans may be approved (which may be included in the determination under
paragraph 16(1)(a) of the VSL Act) by referring to the National Register
of VET.[57]
The National Register
is referred to in section 216 of the National Vocational
Education and Training Regulator Act 2011. It is the official
record of all nationally recognised VET qualifications for Australia. When a change
is made to a qualification, such as being removed (deleted) or superseded, the
Register is required to be updated. For example, the register shows the current
Certificate IV in
Retail Management (Release 2), part of the Retail Services Training Package,
superseded the first release of this qualification from 30 March 2016—the
update included increasing the core units required for completing the
qualification by four, decreasing electives by three units, and updating entry
requirements.[58] These
kinds of updates occur regularly in the VET system, and a new course code is
issued for each version of the qualification, meaning a new version of a course
is distinct from its predecessor and under current arrangements must be added
to the courses and loan caps determination by amendment.
As discussed above, when VSL was created, one of the
measures introduced to improve the monitoring and enforcement capabilities of
DET and the national VET regulator was the courses and loan caps determination
under section 16 of the VSL Act, which allows the Minister to specify
the courses eligible for VSL support, as well as the maximum amount of support
available per course or the method of working out that amount. The Explanatory
Memorandum for the VSL Separation Bill specifies that the determination is
updated twice yearly, and, as discussed above:
The methodology for approved courses is that courses must be
current, and be subsidised by two state or territory lists, or be science,
technology, engineering or mathematics courses, or be required for a licensed
occupation. [59]
Each state and territory government independently determines
which courses are eligible to be subsidised in that jurisdiction, generally
based on an assessment of skill needs—the subsidy not only reduces the cost to
the student by the government bearing some of the cost of the qualification,
but also exempts the student from the 20 per cent loan fee, as discussed above.
Subsidy lists are normally updated by state and territory governments once per
year. For example, New South Wales Government subsidised courses are funded
under Smart and
Skilled.[60]
The 2018 NSW
Skills List identifies the qualifications eligible for a government
subsidy, and also sets out prices, including a lower price for first
qualification and loadings paid to the provider to support Aboriginal or Torres
Strait Islander students, students with a disability or receiving Australian
Government welfare benefits, and their dependents, and students in a regional
or remote location.[61]
Schedule 2 of the VSL Separation
Bill contains just one item, which inserts proposed subsection 16(4)
at the end of existing section 16 of the VSL Act, which deals with the
courses and loan caps determination. It provides:
(4) Despite
subsection 14(2) of the Legislation Act 2003, a determination made
under subsection (1) may make provision in relation to a matter by
applying, adopting or incorporating, with or without modification, any matter
contained in an instrument or other writing as in force or existing from time
to time.
Subsection 14(2) of the Legislation Act
2003 states:
(2) Unless the contrary intention appears, the
legislative instrument or notifiable instrument may not make provision in
relation to a matter by applying, adopting or incorporating any matter
contained in an instrument or other writing as in force or existing from time
to time.
Therefore, although the proposed subsection 16(4) does not
specifically refer to the Register, ‘[t]his lays the groundwork for the
Determination to be amended, to refer to listed courses and new courses that
replace those that become superseded or reaccredited, as specified on the
Register.’[62]
Under these proposed arrangements, a replacement course on
the Register would be automatically eligible for VETSL whether it satisfies the
criteria for inclusion or not. While any unintended consequences of this are
likely to be negligible in the short term, over the longer-term as skills needs
change and (for example) states and territories update their subsidy lists, the
intended alignment between VETSL and skills funding priorities may not be
maintained.
Concluding
comments
The changes proposed in these Bills are administrative in
nature and do not make any immediate changes to eligibility or repayment
conditions for income contingent loans in VET, with the key changes being:
- individual
reporting arrangements for VET Student Loans from 1 July 2019
- the
establishment of a repayment order to ensure VET Student Loans incurred from 1
July 2019 (‘VETSL’) are repaid separately after HELP but before other kinds of
income contingent student loans
- enabling
the inclusion of courses in the course and loan caps determination by reference.
Importantly, the first two changes, if implemented, will for
the first time provide a picture of total outstanding debt, time to repay, and
average individual debt levels for VET debtors compared with higher education
debtors. However, this division would also add to the complexity of
interactions between student loan schemes.
The separation of VETSL raises broader questions about the
future coherence of tertiary education financing. While some policy analysts in
recent years have called for a more unified or coordinated approach to higher
education and VET financing, the proposals in these Bills appear to be a step
in the opposite direction: towards a more definitive division of the two.[63]
While separate administration and reporting of income
contingent loans for VET may provide an opportunity to more carefully consider
the relationship between VET and higher education financing, both in terms of
the equity of student entitlements and the sustainability of the loans, the
proposed changes may also pave the way for further legislative changes
differentiating student loans for VET students from those for higher education
students.