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Study and Training Support Loan data (HELP, AASL, VSL)

Source: R/help.R
ato_help.Rd

Returns aggregate statistics on Australia's three main education-loan schemes:

  • HELP (Higher Education Loan Program, ~3m borrowers, AUD 80bn+ outstanding debt)

  • AASL (Australian Apprenticeship Support Loans, previously Trade Support Loans)

  • VSL (VET Student Loans, vocational education loans)

Usage

ato_help(scheme = c("help", "aasl", "vsl"))

Source

Australian Taxation Office Study and Training Support Loans statistics. Licensed CC BY 2.5 AU.

Arguments

scheme

One of "help" (default), "aasl", or "vsl".

Value

An ato_tbl. All dollar values in nominal AUD.

Details

Headline covers: new loans by income range, outstanding debt by age and gender, repayment rates, median debt on entry. Used by Treasury (PBO costings of HELP indexation changes) and education policy researchers.

References

Commonwealth of Australia. Higher Education Support Act 2003; VET Student Loans Act 2016.

Australian Department of Education (annual). Higher Education Statistics: HELP statistics collection.

Norton, A. and Cherastidtham, I. (2018). Mapping Australian higher education. Grattan Institute. Methodology reference for HELP repayment projections.

See also

Other discovery: ato_catalog(), ato_charities(), ato_cite(), ato_download(), ato_excise(), ato_fbt(), ato_irpd(), ato_payg(), ato_rdti(), ato_sme_benchmarks(), ato_tax_gaps(), ato_top_taxpayers(), ato_vttc()

Examples

# \donttest{
op <- options(ato.cache_dir = tempdir())
try({
  help <- ato_help(scheme = "help")
  head(help)
})
#> ℹ Downloading <https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/ce4c58ec-c930-4a05-8a37-f244d96…
#> ✔ Downloading <https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/ce4c58ec-c930-4a05-8a37-f244d96…
#> 
#> # ato_tbl: ATO HELP statistics
#> # Source:   https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/ce4c58ec-c930-4a05-8a37-f244d960e5f8/resource/0661912a-d114-4155-8b42-63ab1417adea/download/help-statistics-2024-25.xlsx
#> # Licence:  CC BY 2.5 AU
#> # Retrieved: 2026-04-28 19:13 UTC 
#> # Snapshot: 2026-04-24
#> # SHA-256:  70c7ebc3840087c7...
#> # Rows: 6  Cols: 2
#> 
#>                         higher_education_loan_program
#> 1 HELP statistics, 2005–06 to 2024–25 financial years
#> 2                                                <NA>
#> 3                                              Notes:
#> 4                                                <NA>
#> 5                                                <NA>
#> 6                                                <NA>
#>                                                                                                                                     
#> 1                                                                                                                               <NA>
#> 2                                                                                                                               <NA>
#> 3                                                                                                                               <NA>
#> 4                                                   The symbol 'n/a' used in this publication means not applicable or not available.
#> 5                                                                        Totals may not equal the sum of components due to rounding.
#> 6 In order to meet privacy regulations, some items may not be included, or data for some groups may be aggregated with other groups.
options(op)
# }