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Budget 2013 will target overseas-based student loan borrowers with new initiatives to increase repayments and reduce defaulting, Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Minister Steven Joyce and Revenue Minister Peter Dunne say.

“Overseas-based borrowers are continuing to let the side down with slow repayments and high levels of loan defaults, compared to those who stay in New Zealand and pay off their loans,” Mr Joyce says.

The latest student loan statistics show that the gap between the repayment rates of New Zealand-based borrowers and overseas-based borrowers continues to grow, despite overall lifts in the number of people paying off their loans.

Overseas-based borrowers make up 60 per cent of the 84,562 borrowers in default as at March 31 this year, despite comprising only 15 per cent of the borrowing population. They are responsible for 82 per cent of the $520 million currently in default.