Sacha French is a Kiwi working in Australia. She borrowed a student loan of $41,000 and paid off $52,000. Despite this, her debt had ballooned to $80,000 through penalties and interest. She was overwhelmed when her Australian colleagues paid her student loan debt off for her, because:

"Neither of us could bear that our hardworking friend could have that albatross around her neck," 

A director of media giant NZME described Ms French's treatment by this country as appalling.

Well done Dave Hughes and Kate Langbroek

Tracey Martin, NZ First spokesperson on education, was recently interviewed by the NZTEU . She makes some good points that will be of interest to many of the people we help:

• The backbone of a true democracy is a strong education system with an independent voice.
• Public funding of education is a leveller.
• Currently, choice is only available to those who can afford it.
• The strengthening of regional polytechnic options.
• Students should not be "crushed" by the burden of debt. Huge student loan debt causes unfair stress and mental health issues.
• If Study Link was abolished this would save the country $715 million per annum.
• The current system encourages the manipulation of numbers so that results look good. What we need is to deliver what is good for students, not numbers.
• We need to move from the current low trust model of education to a high trust model. One way of doing so is by getting politicians out of the classroom.
• As a society, we either believe in supporting tertiary education in this country or we don't.

I encourage you to listen to the interview. Ms Martin understands your concerns.

The way that IRD debtors are treated causes some to consider suicide and other types of self harming. A recent freedom of information request shows that the IRD is aware of hundreds of cases. Many such people contact us, and of those, only a small number made the IRD aware of their mental state. We believe that the number at risk of self harm is probably much higher than the official IRD figures.

Even one case of threatened self harm would be too much. If you are burdened by an IRD debt, please seek help.