what do u mean 20% of whatever i pay for???
From what i have read.
U fill in the HECS form and give in ur TFN to the ATO and thus all the uni fees will be handled by the ATO and thus in the future u will have a debt with ATO.
From what ur saying is it that, if u pay $500, then whatever ATO pays in regards with uni fees, u will get 20% off those uni fees and thus supposedly, in future will work out to be less debt?
If i dont explain my worries that well, i will give u an example of what i think this whole thing is about.
EXAMPLE:
If u didnt give the 500 dollars, and lets just say ur semester 1 uni fee is $3000 ( i dunno whether the fees are per semester, so correct me if i am wrong), and then with HECS u will have to pay the 3000 back when u start working later.
If U DID pay the 500 contribution, then using the top example, u would get 20% off the 3000 dollars for the semester?right??? and then 20% off the next fee and so on right?????
please explain more??.....
If you only contributed $500, you wouldn't get 20% of the whole lot.
I'm paying my whole fee up-front, so I'm not 100% sure,
but basically how it works is:
If your semester fees as $3000,
by paying up front you will only need to pay $2400
if you make a contribution of $500 up-front, and defer the rest of the fee, they will take $625 off your debt, so you now owe $2375 (note they will not discount this amount the 20%
if you pay any amount over $500, the calculation is $A divide by 80, multiply by 100 = amount you reduce your debt by.
They should send you an information booklet that details exactly how this works, and you'll need to fill out an application form for HECS-HELP