Calculate your HECS-HELP repayment amount based on your income and see when your student debt will be paid off.
Updated October 2026Built and checked by MaverickHow it's calculatedReport an error
Compulsory repayment
$821
1.09% of income, this year
Years to payoff
14y
Indexed at ~2.8% CPI
Total indexation
$10,136
CPI capped: no interest
Borrowing power impact
-$7,927
When buying property
Indexation pushes the balance up, repayments pull it down. The curve clears when you hit zero.
Got a HECS-HELP debt? You only start repaying once your income passes the repayment threshold, and your employer takes it out of your pay. This works out how much comes out each pay, when the debt would be gone, and whether paying extra would actually save you anything.
Prices rose 4.3% in the year to September 2026, going by the ABS's monthly measure. The trimmed mean, which leaves out the biggest price swings, was 3.6%.
Half of the Australians who paid tax in 2023–24 had a taxable income under about $71,000, and the top 10% earned more than about $157,000, from the ATO's statistics.
Mia has a $28,000 HELP debt and earns $75,000, expecting 3% pay rises.
Mia earns $5,472 above the $69,528 threshold, so her compulsory repayment is 15% of that: $821 for 2026-27. With pay rises and indexation, the debt takes about 13 years to clear without voluntary repayments.
James earns $130,000 and has $45,000 of HELP debt.
James is just above the $129,717 threshold: 15% of the band below it ($9,028) plus 17% of the $283 above it - about $9,076 for the year, 7% of his income. At that rate the debt clears in about 5 years.