Gloomy financial outlook for students with HECS debt

Australian students' debt will soar by 4.5 billion dollars this year, due to indexation applied to HECS loans in early June.

Lecture theatre. Faculty of Engineering + Information Technology, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, Australia. Architect: Denton Corker Marshall LLP, 2014. (Photo by: Richard Glover/View Pictures/Universal Images Group via Getty Images) Credit: View Pictures/Universal Images Group via Getty

HECS is the amount people contribute to studying at university - and what they pay later through the tax system when they earn some money. The

debt was indexed in June each year in line with the consumer prices index (CPI) which currently stands at around 7 per cent.

A study by investment group Futurity has found most graduates carry debt into their 30s, while more than half still have debt well into their 40s.

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