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Budget 2024: The Government has announced FamilyBoost, a proposed new childcare payment to help eligible families with the rising costs of Early Childhood Education (ECE). Find out more: Beehive.govt.nz

You can take a break from making your overseas based payments for up to 12 months while you travel overseas. However, if you have any payments due under your New Zealand based repayments, these will still need to be paid and are not covered by the temporary suspension.

You need to let us know if you want a temporary repayment suspension either:

  • before you go overseas
  • within 6 months of leaving.

During your temporary repayment suspension, interest is added to your student loan but you do not need to make repayments.

You need to give us an alternate contact person

When you apply for a temporary repayment suspension you need to give us an alternate contact person for you. This is in case we need to get hold of you but have not been able to. We'll need their name and contact details. They must live in New Zealand and be 18 or older.

How to apply

You can apply for a temporary repayment suspension in myIR or by calling us.

Go to your student loan account in myIR and select 'More'. In the 'Travelling overseas' section select 'Apply for a repayment suspension'.

Log in to myIR

Student loans - contact us

Last updated: 09 Jan 2024
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