The cost of food rose by nearly 4 percent year on year, while student loan living costs only received a 2.2 percent bump in April. Photo: 123rf
It may be called a living costs loan, but is it really enough to live on?
As the cost of essentials rise rapidly some students have said that student loans are nowhere near enough to make ends meet.
Each year, the government-run agency StudyLink adjusts the price of living cost payments in line with inflation.
When student loan living costs increased in April, it was by just over $7 to around $323, a bump of 2.2 percent, but the cost of many essentials rose far higher.
Year on year the cost of food rose by nearly 4 percent, rent by 3 percent, electricity by over 6 percent, and gas by nearly 16 percent.
Some students say the soaring cost of living means they are sacrificing their study just to get by.
Many are picking up close to full time hours to pay for the essentials which they have said their student loan just doesn't cover.
Fourth year law student at Victoria University, Max Irving, said getting by on just a student loan was impossible.
"I could not imagine just having the loan, I have a couple of unemployed friends and they're on the loan plus got support from parents, there's no way they could do it without that."
While he does take out a loan, Irving has often worked more than one job at a time to get by while studying.
At one point he was working full time alongside full-time study, something he said took a huge toll.
"Just bluntly I was kind of just constantly depressed, it's just almost impossible, you've got no time for others, no time for yourself."
While he is now working part-time hours, he said the workload was still challenging, and with less paid work money was often tight.
"It's still such a massive workload to add on that you just feel drained 24/7, and I'd say currently part-time and full-time uni is stressful as is, because uni is like a job you don't get paid for."
Pipiana Coventon currently balances her full time art history and media studies degree alongside working close to 30 hours a week across two part time jobs.
While she also takes out a student loan, she said without the paid work she wouldn't be able to get by.
"Sometimes if we have a big power bill or something coming up I have to forgo focussing on my uni work to make sure I work enough hours to have enough to cover that."
Coventon said working long hours while studying had become the norm among her peers.
"One of my flatmates worked like nearly 40 hours a week at another job on top of full time study, my other flatmate worked like nightshift at this other job, my other flatmate would go home every holidays and work flat out the whole time, and one of my other flatmates couldn't find a job and had to move home because they just couldn't afford to stay studying and renting."
She said there was no way the student loan living cost payment of $323 a week was enough to get by.
"If you take $200 to cover rent in a week, and then also to do grocery shopping so that you're actually feeding yourself somewhat nutritious meals, and then also like either paying for petrol or public transport to get to uni and then there's like reoccurring costs throughout the year if you need to buy textbooks or things like that, it definitely adds up very quickly.
"I think the student loan, it's not enough on its own to get me through the week, I'd probably have like a dollar or two left in my bank account at the end of that and that's not even really from spending it on like lavish extravagances, it's just paying for the things I have to do to get by."
Infometrics chief executive Brad Olsen said while the cost of many essentials were rising quicker than the overall rate of inflation, it would be incredibly difficult to adjust student loans based on individual circumstances.
"Certain items have gone up in cost more, or less, depending on exactly what the item is, it would be far far too difficult and far too administratively costly to ask everyone who is getting a student loan or any other benefit what exactly they spend all their money on and then how to custom adjust it."
Olsen said the number of people both employed and in formal study had risen by nearly 7 percent over the last year.
"For a lot of these cost pressures that we're seeing at the moment for those much more frequently purchased items, those critical must have necessities, they're not costs that students can try and adjust or avoid or sort of shift their spending to cheaper alternatives, when it's the likes of your food prices that are increasing, when it's your electricity bill that's increasing there's not a lot of options of there, where other households, generally households with more money also have more options.
"When you're already in a pretty difficult position, the decision around your electricity bill isn't quite do you get the champagne option or the not champagne option, it's do you have power or not."
Olsen said it seemed almost nothing was exempt from the grips of inflation.
"An average two minute noodle packet is now 50 percent more expensive in 2025 than it was five years ago, so you can make all the adjustments you want but even when you're going back to the absolute dirt cheap students options you're still paying quite a bit more for them and that's where the challenge is starting to come through."
With even student staples jumping in cost, Olsen said the quick rise was concerning.
"Inflationary pressure are really worrying because for a lot of other products, you can look at them and go it's because there's not enough dairy being produced around the world or there's been a bad crop of olives being produced, or someone flooded all the coffee beans and there's not enough - two minute noodles, there's not too many things out there that are going to influence the two minute noodle supply."
He said while that cost alone may not break the bank, the combination of rising costs has created a cause for concern for students.
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