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HECS Payoff Calculator: How Long Until Your Debt Is Gone?

Enter your current HELP balance and income, and this projects your payoff year using the real mechanics: the published ATO repayment tables, indexation applied on 1 June before your repayment is credited, and optional voluntary payments. Built for doctors and nurses; works for any HELP debt.

Your numbers

Current HELP balance ($)

Use today's balance from myGov/ATO online. It already includes the one-off 20% cut (June 2025) and the 1 June 2026 indexation.

Repayment income this year ($)

Broader than salary: taxable income plus reportable fringe benefits (salary packaging), reportable super and net investment losses.

Income growth (% per year)

Award increments plus career progression. Junior doctors and nurses often step faster than 4% early on.

Voluntary repayment each year ($, optional)

Modelled as paid just before 1 June, so it reduces the balance before indexation.

My 2025–26 tax return hasn't been assessed yet

If ticked, last year's compulsory repayment (computed on the 2025–26 table, using your income above as an approximation of last year's) is credited against your balance when your return is assessed, before the first 1 June indexation. Untick if your 2025–26 return is already done and reflected in your balance.

Assumptions (editable)

Future indexation (% per year)

Unknown in advance. The rule is the lower of CPI and WPI; actuals were 4.0% (2024), 3.2% (2025), 2.8% (2026). Default = last actual.

Repayment-threshold growth (% per year)

Thresholds are indexed to average weekly earnings each year (the 2026–27 uplift was ≈3.8%). Freezing them would overstate your repayments.

Projection

Paid off in

—

Total repaid

—

compulsory + voluntary

Indexation added

—

over the projection

Year	Repayment income	Indexation	Repaid	Balance at year end

Each projection year runs: voluntary payment → 1 June indexation → compulsory repayment credited at assessment (the ATO-confirmed ordering). Repayment = the marginal-band formula, capped at 10% of total repayment income and at the remaining balance.

What this tool assumes (read before trusting it)

Published tables for 2025–26 and 2026–27 (nil to $67,000 / $69,528; 15c and 17c marginal bands; and from $179,286 / $186,051 the repayment is 10% of your total repayment income — the tool always uses the lower of that and the marginal formula). The 2025–26 table is used for the "return not yet assessed" credit; later years grow the thresholds by your assumed rate, since the ATO indexes them to average weekly earnings.
Future indexation is your assumption. The legislated rule is the lower of CPI and WPI, applied each 1 June to debt older than 11 months. New borrowings under 11 months old aren't indexed that year, so if you're still studying and borrowing, this tool slightly overstates indexation.
Cash flow ≠ balance. PAYG withholding comes out of your pay all year, but your balance only drops when your return is assessed. The projection models the balance, not your fortnightly cash flow.
The 20% one-off cut is done. It was applied to balances as at 1 June 2025 (before that year's indexation). Your current myGov balance already reflects it; don't subtract it again.
Not modelled: new borrowings during the projection, the Medicare-levy low-family-income exemption (which can zero a year's repayment), overseas-resident assessment on worldwide income, exact lodgment timing (which shifts the payoff month, not usually the year), and that any remaining debt is cancelled at death — HELP debt is not inherited.

FAQ

Why did my HELP balance go up even though money was taken from my pay?

Because of the order of operations. The extra tax withheld from your pay during the year is not applied to your loan as you go — the compulsory repayment is only credited when your tax return is assessed, after 30 June. Indexation, meanwhile, is applied to the balance on 1 June, before that credit lands. So each year the balance is indexed first and repaid after, which is exactly how this calculator models it.

Does salary packaging or salary-sacrificed super reduce my HECS repayments?

No — it usually increases them relative to what people expect. Compulsory repayments are based on repayment income, which is taxable income plus reportable fringe benefits, reportable super contributions, net investment losses and exempt foreign employment income. Salary-sacrificed super and packaged benefits are added back in, so they do not reduce the income your repayment is calculated on.

Should I make a voluntary repayment before 1 June?

If you plan to make one anyway, before 1 June is the time: it reduces the balance before that year's indexation is applied. There has been no discount on voluntary repayments since 1 January 2017, and payments can take around four business days to process, so don't leave it to the last days of May.

What indexation rate should I assume for future years?

Nobody knows future rates. Since the 2024 reform (backdated to 1 June 2023), indexation is the lower of CPI and WPI, which caps it at wage growth. The actual applied rates were 4.0% (1 June 2024), 3.2% (2025) and 2.8% (2026). This tool defaults to the last actual rate, 2.8%, and lets you change it — any future rate is an assumption, not a forecast.

Sources & methodology

ATO — study and training support loans: rates and repayment thresholds (2025–26 and 2026–27 tables, repayment-income definition).
ATO — indexation rates (4.0% 2024, 3.2% 2025, 2.8% 2026) and compulsory repayments (assessment-credit timing).
Department of Education — HELP indexation and debt reduction (lower-of-CPI/WPI rule; the completed one-off 20% reduction).
Projections are estimates, not advice: future indexation and threshold growth are assumptions you control above. See our guides — HECS for junior doctors and HECS for nurses — for how the system works, and the take-home pay calculator for the cash-flow side.