Here's another interesting article from Kiwi Blog, concerning Winston Peters' $158,000 debt. The point made is that:
Winston owes the taxpayer $158,000 from 2005.
If you apply IRD interest rates to the debt over 13 years you get $983,000.
Winston's debt didn't increase over 13 years. We bet that there are thousands of student loan debtors who would line up to repay their debt if enormous interest hadn't spun them out of control.
We are not criticising Winston, just a system that makes it hard for people who genuinely want to repay their student loan debt to do so.
Winston owes the taxpayer $158,000 from 2005.
If you apply IRD interest rates to the debt over 13 years you get $983,000.
Winston's debt didn't increase over 13 years. We bet that there are thousands of student loan debtors who would line up to repay their debt if enormous interest hadn't spun them out of control.
We are not criticising Winston, just a system that makes it hard for people who genuinely want to repay their student loan debt to do so.