So the details are: this chap owes almost $180,000. Yes, he admits he should have responded to IRD on the multiple occasions they tried to contact him — but he didn’t. And he says he didn’t realise how much money he owed until just recently.
Now he’s in a terrible situation because he’s stuck in New Zealand. The authorities have taken his passport and he can’t leave unless he ponies up some money. He’s also got no income while he’s here so he’s had to cancel some eye surgeries and shoulder surgeries.
Yes, it sounds like he’s a surgeon — which means, no, he’s not exactly on the bones of his arse, is he?
Feel sorry for him? Nah. Of course you don’t — me neither.
In fact, I’m going to admit something to you, which is not very nice of me: I take a perverse pleasure in hearing about people like this getting caught at the border and forced to pay up.
And yes, even though it’s “only” $180,000 — small beer in terms of what the country deals with — every one of those dollars feels like a win to me because of what it represents.
People like this doctor are the epitome of taking this country for a ride. He knew he should pay his student loan back. I knew I should have paid mine back. We all knew it.
Most of us did. But some went overseas and thought they could come and go from New Zealand whenever they liked, with no repercussions and never have to pay the money back.
Well, this is a come-to-Jesus moment for people like that.
It’s changed in New Zealand. We’re not gentle parenting anymore — we’re practising FAFO. You know what that is? F around and find out.
And it’s working.
There’s one lawyer in this country who reckons he’s doing so much work on student loan cases alone that he’s had to stop taking on other work. That’s how many people he’s helping clean up this kind of mess.
He says he’s dealt with more than 300 cases, accounting for around $25 million owed to New Zealand — and he’s already managed to recover $7 million of it.
Good.
Am I sorry for the doctor — and everyone else in the same situation?
Absolutely not.
Heather du Plessis-Allan is a journalist and radio broadcaster who hosts Newstalk ZB's weekday Drive-Time Show – where this article was sourced.
8 comments:
What frustrates me greatly is that when you're a, student, you get good at surviving on not a lot of money. When you graduate and get a job, suddenly you've got a lot more money. The right thing to do is to allow yourself a little bit more to live on, but put the bulk of the extra into your student loan to pay it off.. While you don't miss the money. Too many people, like this person, don't do that... But they could have.
He is exactly the type of person NZ needs. We should have a simple system in place with student loans for the occupations we want to encourage to work here. Loan forgiven system. The loan reduces each year worked here. If the graduate chooses not to work here then harsh penalties apply. If the graduate chooses to work here then in time the debt reduces to nil
Am with LNF. The taxpayer sinks money into the training of professionals. To turn this from an 'expenditure' into an 'investment', the taxpayer has a right to expect to make a 'profit' on that investment by turning it into human capital that benefits society as a whole. A student signing the dotted line and taking the money has no cause for complaint when the taxpayer subsequently wants that money back because the student did not honour the arrangement after graduation.
So the Government borrows $2.3 Bn at commercial interest rates, and hands it out to students, who regard it as a gift.
The Government debt compounds, while the students live a jolly nice life elsewhere in the world with the back up plan that they can always return to NZ immune from pursuit of the their debt ?
Hear hear Heather. The Inland Revenue are notorious for not using the full range of their statutory powers to enforce compliance. And that's a slap in the face for the vast majority of taxpayers who play by the rules.The prevailing attitude towards debt repayment is a natural consequence of where that leads.
People play the system when the system allows it. These days accountability is gone out of fashion and the state is expected to act as a charity. Why pay for the education and training of resources that prefer to work elsewhere is one of the dumbest things we do.
NZ will never learn - no such thing as free anything. In this case, the Clark government made student loans interest free to head off an election defeat and it worked - for labour but the country pays and pays.
Plenty more freebies in this coming election - all free of course!!!!
I would like to see more similar arrests at the border. I would also like to see IRD bring in more bailifs to collect these "loans", and use cooperation with the Australian, UK, USA Governments to clawback these funds. After all, the NZ Government could cancel passports leading to deportations and arrests on arrival. The threat alone would probably be sufficient.
Similarly with those who applied for and took grants for the Covid period but never needed them -- scammers they are; more like scum really.
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