Students Bottom of Budget Priority
Yesterday the Government announced that the amount that students would be able to borrow per week for living costs under
the student loans scheme would increase by $5 to $155/week.
Brad Heap, President of the Albany Students’Association Inc. at Massey University’s Auckland Campus says that the
changes are “a disgrace and insulting to students”.
“I cannot understand how the Government honestly expects students to live on $155 per week of borrowed money. Students
face exactly the same costs living as every other adult in society; however the Government expects that we reasonably
budget on only $155 a week. Even the minimum wage is more then 3 times that amount at $480 a week. Yet again students
have been left out in the cold by this government failing to recognise the huge financial millstone that students are
struggling under.”
“Earlier this year the amount borrowed under the student loan scheme topped $10 Billion. Students are struggling with
increased food, power and transport costs. Add this onto the normal stresses of 50 hour per week university study and
extra hours in part-time work trying to make ends meet and you have a whole sub-sector of society in dire financial
straits.”
“The Albany Students’ Association Inc. is dealing with more and more students who are being crippled by debt brought on
by a government failing to meet their financial needs. The Government is giving more money to workers, families and the
elderly but failing young people.”
“We call on all political parties this year to promise students a living allowance set at the amount of the minimum wage
so that they can focus on their education and drive the knowledge economy of this country into the future in something
other than Fred Flintstone’s car.”
ENDS