Higher Education Funding Act 1988

Subsection (1) does not apply in relation to the 1997‑98 year of income or any later year of income.

If:

a person has made an election under subsection 106PB(1) and the election has not been revoked under subsection 106PB(2); and

the HEC repayment income of the person in respect of a year of income:

exceeds the prescribed amount for the year of income for the purposes of this section (see subsection (3)); but

does not exceed the minimum prescribed amount for the year of income for the purposes of subsection 106Q(1); and

on 1 June immediately preceding the making of an assessment in respect of the person’s income of that year of income, the person had an accumulated HEC debt;

On the person first becoming liable to pay an amount to the Commonwealth under subsection (1), an additional amount equal to 10% of the person’s relevant debt is taken to have been paid in reduction of that debt.

In subsections (1) and (2):

subject to paragraph (b) of this subsection—the person’s accumulated HEC debt referred to in paragraph (1)(c); or

if an amount or amounts have been paid in reduction of that debt, or an amount is taken (under subsection (2)) to have been paid in reduction of that debt, or an amount or amounts have been assessed under section 106T to be payable in respect of that debt—the amount (if any) remaining after deducting from that debt the amount so paid or taken to have been paid or the sum of the amounts so paid or assessed to be payable.

A reference in paragraph (3)(b) to an amount assessed under section 106T to be payable in respect of a person’s accumulated HEC debt is, if the amount has been increased or reduced by an amendment of the relevant assessment, a reference to the increased or the reduced amount (as the case may be).

For the purposes of this section, the prescribed amount is:

in the case of the year of income ending 30 June 1996—$20,000; or

in the case of a subsequent year of income—the number of whole dollars of the amount worked out by using the formula:

the average weekly earnings for all employees for the reference period in the December quarter immediately preceding that year of income, as published by the Australian Statistician; and

the average weekly earnings for all employees for the reference period in each of the 4 quarters immediately before that December quarter, as published by the Australian Statistician.

For the purposes of subsection (5), the reference period in a particular quarter in a year is the period described by the Australian Statistician as the pay period ending on or before a specified day that is the third Friday of the middle month of that quarter.

The Minister must cause to be published in the Gazette:

as soon as possible after the commencement of this section, the prescribed amount in respect of the year of income ending on 30 June 1996; and

before the start of each following year of income, the prescribed amount in respect of that year of income.