VET Student Loans (VSL) Provider Newsletter – August 2025

Welcome to the VSL Provider Newsletter – August 2025

On 25 and 28 July, the VSL program welcomed over 150 participants from 70 VSL providers to an information webinar. The webinar focused on the student data reporting required to facilitate the 20% reduction to student loan debt.

If you missed the webinar on the Universities Accord (Cutting Student Debt by 20 per cent) Bill 2025, you may view it at VSL provider webinars.

Following the success of the webinar, we are looking to introduce them as a regular communication channel with our providers. You are welcome to suggest topics of interest and relevance for consideration.

A 20% reduction to student loan debt

On 31 July 2025, the Australian Parliament passed the Universities Accord (Cutting Student Debt by 20 per cent) Bill 2025. The Bill received Royal Assent and is effective from 3 August 2025.

The ATO will retrospectively apply the 20% reduction to the balance of student loan debts as at 1 June 2025. The indexation that was applied will be adjusted to reflect the reduced debt amount. Student lifetime HELP loan limits will also be credited (similar to a repayment) as the reduction is applied.

The student loan repayment system has also changed, increasing the amount people can earn before they are required to start repaying their loan.

The minimum compulsory repayment threshold has increased from $56,156 to $67,000 in 2025-26. This change also introduces a system where HELP repayments are calculated only on the income above the new $67,000 threshold rather than repayments being based on total annual income.

The new repayment schedule will take effect for the 2025-2026 income year.

Data reporting obligations

Under the ordinary operating processes of the VSL program, a student does not incur their debt until the department pays you the loan amount relating to the student’s study. As a result, students may pass a census date prior to 1 June 2025 but may not incur the debt until a later date.

To ensure that students, who passed a census date prior to 1 June 2025, receive the 20% reduction the Government has extended the debt reduction policy.

The 20% debt reduction will apply to all VSL debts with a census date on or before 1 June 2025, where you are paid during the period of 6 months after 1 June 2025.

For students, whose census date was before 1 June 2025, you will have until the November pay run to report enrolment data to the department for verification and payment, so these students are also able to receive the reduction.

There are resources to assist you with your data reporting obligations, how to identify payment errors and what actions you are required to take to rectify them.

Check the records you have reported by using TCSI Analytics, the TCSI Data Entry portal and TCSI Data Extracts.

You can also access Provider Payment Reports on HITS; the report will give you a list of excluded units. The Data Reporting Requirements for 2025 fact sheet details the error codes and how to fix them.

Increasing previously paid VET Student Loan amounts

From 3 July 2025, a previously paid VET Student Loan amount cannot be edited to increase the loan amount if a payment has been made or is being processed by the department. A previously paid loan amount can still be decreased.

Where feasible and reasonable, you can add the increased amount to a subsequent unit of study (that is, the cost of the subsequent unit of study charged at a higher rate). The department would typically expect this to occur where subsequent units of study for the relevant course are available. We will accept that any amount up to 10% of the indexed loan cap for a course as being reasonable.

Where this is not feasible, a new unit enrolment should be reported. It should be reported with the same census date as the previous unit that was under charged for, except:

1. Add the pre-fix ‘INCR’ to the original unit of study code followed by as much of the original value up to the 12-character field limit to make it unique and
2. only the relevant amount added to amount charged, amount paid upfront, loan fee and HELP loan amount.

Commonwealth Prac Payment webinars

The department held its first student webinar on Commonwealth Prac Payments on 17 June 2025. In this webinar students found out about the eligibility requirements and how to apply. There was also a step-by-step walk through of the application process.

A subsequent webinar, an expansion of the first, was held on 31 July. This webinar explained the claims process.

Diploma of Nursing students who missed the webinars are able to view them at Student webinar | Your Career to see how they can apply. There is also a list of Questions and Answers for interested students.

You may also refer your students to Check my eligibility | Your Career to find out if they are eligible for the Commonwealth Prac Payment for VET students.

2025 VSL Tuition Protection Levy

The Tuition Protection Service (TPS) has commenced preparatory work for the 2025 VSL Tuition Protection Levy (VSL Levy).

You will receive early advice from the TPS on 14 October 2025. The TPS strongly encourages you to check and update all contact information in the HELP IT System (HITS) to ensure your organisation receives correspondence relating to the 2025 VSL Levy. The TPS will send all correspondence to the persons identified in HITS with the contact type of CEO/Vice-Chancellor (VC) and copy it to other persons with the contact type of Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Senior Authorised Officer (SAO), Primary Contact – VET (PCV) or Primary Contact – VET/HE (PVH).

You will receive your 2025 VSL Levy invoice on 11 November 2025, with payment due by 11 December 2025.

Please note, the three domestic tuition protection levies – the VSL Levy, the HELP Tuition Protection Levy, and the Higher Education Up-front Payments Levy – are calculated and collected separately, but concurrently.

If you have any questions regarding the 2025 VSL Levy, please contact the TPS using the online contact form.

New eligibility criteria for the Tertiary Access Payment

First year tertiary students who take one or more gap years after finishing Year 12 or equivalent are now able to claim the Tertiary Access Payment (TAP) during their first year of study.

Previously, students could only claim the TAP if they were starting tertiary study within 12 months of finishing Year 12 or equivalent.

Now, if they start their course by 22 years of age and meet all other eligibility criteria, they’ll be able to get the TAP.

The TAP is a non-indexed, means-tested payment of up to $5,000 to Year 12 graduates (or equivalent) from regional or remote areas who need to relocate for full-time, higher-level tertiary education (Certificate IV and above) at an education provider located at least 90 minutes by public transport from their family home.

Eligible students have until the 31 December 2025 to apply for the TAP through Services Australia.

Subscribing to the VSL Provider Newsletter

The VSL Provider Newsletter is how we let you know about program updates and reminders about the program administrative requirements. Let your colleagues know they can subscribe to the newsletter in less than a minute at VET Student Loans – subscribe. You can access previous copies of the newsletter at VET Student Loans Provider Newsletter.