Te māuiui taumaha Serious illness

If you have a serious illness, injury or disability and you are unable to make your overseas-based repayments, you may be able to keep your student loan interest-free. Your repayments can also be based on your income, rather than the overseas-based repayment formula.

The illness, injury or disability must mean one of the following. 

• You are not able to engage in paid work, other than work for a token payment or very low wage.
• It poses a serious and imminent risk of death. 

This applies to interest and student loan repayments from 1 April 2020 onwards. To apply for your student loan to be interest-free, you will need to send us:

• a medical certificate or letter from a doctor confirming your illness, injury or disability and how it affects your ability to work
• proof of your income if you're currently earning, for example, wages or a benefit.

You can send this information to us when you apply in myIR or by post.

We may ask for more financial details if you have not already provided them, for example, bank statements. We can walk you through this once you apply.

Apply to keep my student loan interest-free overseas