Students Bottom of Budget Priority

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

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