This map reveals which suburbs are carrying the city’s biggest HELP debts.
This map reveals which suburbs are carrying the city’s biggest HELP debts.
By Matt Wade
February 16, 2025 — 2.56pm
Sydney residents have racked up $14 billion in student debt and more than half those who owe the federal government money for their tertiary studies live in the western suburbs.
Around half a million Sydneysiders have a Higher Education Loan Program (HELP) liability, and the average debt hit $28,739 in 2021-22, analysis of the latest Tax Office data by the Western Sydney Leadership Dialogue shows.
The Albanese government has sought to woo young voters with student debt relief. In July, all HELP (previously HECS) liabilities will be cut by 20 per cent and the income threshold at which student loans must be repaid will be lifted. In addition, Treasurer Jim Chalmers last week instructed lenders to ignore student debt when weighing up mortgage applications, making it easier for those with a HELP liability to get a home loan.
The analysis reveals 55 per cent of the 480,000 Sydney residents with a HELP debt lived in the city’s greater west, where a swag of marginal seats will be hotly contested at this year’s federal election.
The City and Inner South statistical district, which includes the CBD and adjacent suburbs to the west and south, had the highest average student debt at $33,019 followed by the Inner West statistical district with $31,585.
The three districts with the most HELP debtors – Inner South West (56,122), South West (46,232) and Parramatta (44,552) – are in western Sydney and overlap with key marginal electorates including Parramatta, Banks and Reid.
Maddy Foster, a school teacher at Granville public school who recently finished her university studies, says her HELP debt is always at the back of her mind.
“With index indexation on top of my debt every year, it scares me to look at it, really – it’s like, how much do I owe now?” she said.
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Foster recently took a loan to buy a home unit and says her HELP debt adds to her sense of financial stress.
“I feel like I’m just swimming in debt at this point and I don’t know when I won’t be swimming in debt, to be honest,” she said.
“It is frustrating just thinking about it. I love this career … but with the cost of living, and how much has been already added on to the HECS debt, I’m definitely not going to be able to pay it off as quickly as I was planning.”
Foster grew up in western Sydney and knows people who have decided against doing a degree because they were concerned about accruing debt.
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“They just thought it wasn’t worth it in the end, which is pretty sad,” she said.
Foster says the plan to cut student debt is “a small step in the right direction” but believes more should be done to reduce financial pressure on young people.
For the past two decades, females have been undertaking higher education in larger numbers than males; as a result far more women now have a student debt than men. Nationally, 62 per cent of those aged 30 to 39 years with a HELP debt are women, federal government data shows.
Adam Leto, chief executive of the Western Sydney Leaderships Dialogue, said the distribution of student debt across Sydney dispelled claims that cutting HELP debts would benefit only wealthy professionals.
“Some of the commentary saying this policy is just for the city’s rich kids, I think is a little out of touch,” he said.
The most recent census revealed the number of people gaining a bachelor’s degree in Greater Western Sydney jumped by 29 per cent in the five years to 2021. The biggest increase in tertiary educated workers across western Sydney in that period was in the healthcare and social assistance sector, while education was third largest.
“I wouldn’t call carers, nurses and teachers wealthy professionals,” Leto said.
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Blacktown, Parramatta and the Hills Shire councils added more adults with a degree than any other local government areas in NSW between 2016 and 2021.
“The young generation of western Sydney are increasingly educated, mobile and aspirational, and any policy which has the potential to open up more opportunities for higher learning and skills development should be encouraged,” Leto said.
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