‘It’s obscene’: ATO still chasing $2bn in student debt from controversial 1990s loan scheme

More than 140,000 people who traded welfare payments for loans are still repaying them decades later

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The Australian government is still chasing $2bn of debt from more than 140,000 former low-income students who traded away their right to welfare under a loan scheme two decades ago for its unfairness.

The student financial supplement scheme (SFSS), which operated for a decade from 1993, enticed tertiary students to take out “low-cost” loans by giving up benefits including youth allowance, Austudy or the pensioner education supplement.

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