[IN CONFIDENCE RELEASE EXTERNAL]
25OIA1529
25 November 2024
Sarah Allison
[FYI request #28986 email]
Dear Sarah Allison
Thank you for your request made under the Official Information Act 1982 (OIA), received on 30
October 2024. You requested the following:
How many New Zealand residents aged 65 or older held a student loan balance in 2024,
and how big are their student loan balances (broken down in 5k bands e.g. $0-5000, 5001-
9999) etc.
Information being released
Inland Revenue does not hold information about an individual’s residency status in New Zealand.
Further, because tax residency is self-determined, it is not a comprehensive indicator for
grouping individuals in data collection.
As such, we have interpreted your request for “New Zealand residents” to refer to individuals
who are deemed to be New Zealand based borrowers.
The information requested is outlined in
Table 1. This data was extracted from Inland Revenue
systems on 2 November 2024 and is current as of 31 October 2024.
The data also includes individuals with unknown addresses, assuming that they are still present
in New Zealand. Individuals recorded as being overseas based borrowers have been excluded.
Individuals with balances over $100,000 have been grouped into brackets of $25,000 to protect
their privacy. Individuals with balances under $20 have been excluded.
Publishing of OIA response
We intend to publish our response to your request on Inland Revenue’s website
(ird.govt.nz) as
this information may be of interest to other members of the public. This letter, with your personal
details removed, may be published in its entirety.
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25OIA1529
Publishing responses increases the availability of information to the public and is consistent with
the OIA's purpose of enabling more effective participation in the making and administration of
laws and policies and promoting the accountability of officials.
Thank you again for your request.
Yours sincerely
Tanja Jonson
Group Lead – Individuals
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25OIA1529
Table 1 – Individuals over 65 years of age with a student loan balance
Student loan balance
Number of NZ based
borrowers
$0-$5,000
4,117
$5,001-$10,000
3,323
$10,001-$15,000
2,173
$15,001-$20,000
1,606
$20,001-$25,000
1,273
$25,001-$30,000
1,067
$30,001-$35,000
816
$35,001-$40,000
598
$40,001-$45,000
404
$45,001-$50,000
279
$50,001-$55,000
225
$55,001-$60,000
142
$60,001-$65,000
120
$65,001-$70,000
83
$70,001-$75,000
49
$75,001-$80,000
36
$80,001-$85,000
32
$85,001-$90,000
26
$90,001-$95,000
24
$95,001-$100,000
14
$100,001-$125,000
40
$125,001-$150,000
25
$150,000+
16
Grand Total
16,488
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