Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Are IRD really the 'bad guys' when it comes to student debt?

Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive

Right, tell me what you think of this.

There seems to be a bit of an effort underway at the moment to portray IRD as bad guys because they're chasing Kiwis overseas who owe money on their student loans.

Now, tell me if you think that we should let either of these two off the hook on the money that they owe.

The first is a pilot who moved to Australia 10 years ago. He now owes IRD $170,000. That is his original loan, plus basically mostly interest.

He says he moved there for a pilot job in 2014, did it for six years, lost it during COVID, had to take a low-paying job in a storage warehouse.

He's a pilot again, but this loan is so big, he doesn't know if he's ever gonna be able to pay it back.

Should we let him off his debt?

Or do you, like me, look at what a regional commercial pilot in Australia can earn, which is over $100,000 and possibly even closer to $200,000 Australian dollars, and think, he can probably afford to start paying back that debt.

The second is a woman who has a debt of $70,000.

Now, she moved to the United States 20 years ago.

She wants to come back now to see her sick mom, but she can't because she's worried that she's gonna be arrested at the border.

Should we wipe her debt? So she can come home and see her sick mom?

Or do you like me, think that's entirely her decision.

She can come back and see her sick mom. Ain't nobody stopping her doing that. And maybe when she gets here, we'll have a little chat about how she can start to make some repayments on that debt.

Or she can carry on like she is, which is clearly valuing her money over her mom. Not coming back.

And by the way, arrests over the border only happen to the worst offenders who've who've ignored all attempts by IRD to sort out the debt.

Now, don't think I'm callous, right?

I do feel sorry for both of these people and everybody else like them, because I imagine it's a horrible situation to be in, to allow your debt to get that out of hand.

But that is not an excuse not to pay it back. IRD is, from what I can tell, pretty reasonable here.

So much so that that woman's $70,000 debt has now been reduced to only $15,000 so it just covers the original debt in the end. The penalties have been wiped. This is them coming to the party to try to help.

Sorry, the free ride is over, the repayments need to start. New Zealand is broke, we actually need this money back.

I applaud IRD for going hard on this, and so far, I'm completely unmoved by any attempts to paint them as bad guys.

I am yet to come across a single case where I think that IRD is being unfair, asking for the student loan to be repaid.

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