I am fired up. As blogged below do not critise those who are below you. We have just as much a voice as you do.

If you want to know more about student support and how little students get check this page out: http://www.students.org.nz/index.php?page=livingallowances

Here are some highlights:

Students are the only group in our society who are not entitled to public income assistance when out of paid work. While the cost of living increases more and more, full-time students are being forced to scramble together income from a range of sources to meet ever increasing weekly living expenses - whether through working long hours on top of full-time study or borrowing to live from the loan scheme.

New Zealand’s low level of living allowance eligibility and relatively high cost of living forces a large number of students to borrow to live from the Student Loan Scheme and/or scramble together income from a range of sources.

In a 2005 report by the North American-based Education Policy Institute, research compared countries on six different measures of tertiary education and student living cost affordability. Out of a total of 16 countries, New Zealand only scored 15th, while understandably Sweden and Norway, two countries that have a fully funded tertiary system, scored first and second.

NZUSA believes that students must be relieved from the burden of being forced to borrow to live and plunged into high debt. Students must be provided with a living allowance as of right while enrolled in full-time tertiary study, and out of full-time paid work. Full-time study is just that – full-time! We strongly deplore the current and previous government’s view that debt constitutes a form of income for students.

30% of all borrowing under the Student Loan Scheme includes borrowing for student living costs, and 50% of all loan scheme borrowers in 2004 borrowed for living costs.

The maximum a student can borrow per week is $150.00. Despite being the longest un-inflation adjusted figure on the government’s books, this is not a sufficient amount to live on, in light of increasing costs, and particularly if students have no where else to turn for income.

The logic from parties who support age related means testing tends also supports the view that if a student is ineligible for an allowance then their parents will support them.

However, only 28 percent of all respondents to the TNS Income and Expenditure Survey (2004) reported receiving some parental support while studying, and this was not necessarily on a weekly basis. The median amount gained from this source for the year was $1,999. The 1998 Income and Expenditure Survey revealed that 31 percent had received some form of monetary gift from their parents.

And there is plenty more in the linked article read up before you blindly critise.

Tags: Allowances, Families, Finances, Money, Student Debt, Student Support, Students

This entry was posted on Monday, August 11th, 2008 at 11:06 pm and is filed under Comment and Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.