Student-loan dodgers face tough crackdown

The Inland Revenue Department increasingly uses legal action or debt
 collectors to claw back money from the most reluctant payers

The Government plans to hound student loan holders who have gone overseas leaving big debts behind.

Australian-based borrowers in particular will be targeted, as the Inland Revenue Department increasingly uses legal action or debt collectors to claw back money from the most reluctant payers.

Overseas-based borrowers are responsible for 80 per cent of overdue repayments, which amounted to $418 million in October.

"It's fundamentally a fairness issue," said Revenue Minister Peter Dunne. "There's a certain sense of annoyance amongst people who stayed in New Zealand and diligently worked to pay off their loans that these freeloaders overseas are, in some cases, getting away with it."

Since late 2010, IRD has been carrying out a blitz on the 52,000 student-loan debtors overseas.

Mr Dunne said measures would be ramped up to cut the total student debt of $12.9 billion more quickly.

- nzherald.co.nz