Research on possible topics -
Topic idea 1 - Studylink/Student loan/Allowance:
Equality -
People from underprivileged families get money to fund their studies and therefore achieve in their futures. The government gives these students money weekly that they do not have to pay back if their parents earn under a certain amount. The other students which parents earn over the amount are seen to have parental help in their futures and therefore don't need the money which the under privileged do.
In-Equality -
People whose parents are seen to earn under the yearly earnings to receive a student allowance, receive free money, where they can use this money on whatever they want. Their parents may help them with whatever money they have on-top of their large amount of free money from the government to go towards their 'living' but can be spent on anything. Where as people who's parents earn over the quota do not receive anything except for a student loan which they must pay back in their future, due to their parents having money, whether or not their parents actually help them out or not.
This is in-equal and unfair as it is purely based on the parents, not the student. The students who receive their free money through the allowance can spend it on anything they want, where as the students who receive the loan any money they receive, they must work throughout their whole future to pay back a massive loan. This is not equality in students and although there is the social class subject coming through this, a large portion of what is spent through the allowance does get wasted on luxuries such as alcohol, tattoos, cigarettes and eating out. Where as those with the loan struggle working and earning money to pay back the loans they occur over their studies, this is unequal and everyone should be accessed on themselves personally.
Research around this subject -
Student allowance information -
http://www.studylink.govt.nz/student-allowance/
Student Allowance is a weekly payment to help with your living expenses while you study. It’s money that you don’t have to pay back.
To get a student allowance you usually have to be:
- 18 years old or over – some 16 and 17 year olds can also get it
- under 65 when your course starts
- studying full-time or limited full-time
- enrolled on an undergraduate tertiary course or Bachelor degree with honours, or at secondary school
- a New Zealand citizen, or meet residency requirements.
You’ll need to pass more than half of a full-time course to get it again.
How much Student Allowance you get depends on:
- your income
- if you have a partner, and their income
- if you have children
- your parents’ income – if you are under 24 and don’t have children
- if you live with your parents while you’re studying.
The most Student Allowance you could get if you are:
- a single applicant without children is $210.13 a week after tax
- a single applicant with children is $325.98 a week after tax
- an applicant with a partner without children is $350.20 a week after tax
- an applicant with a partner with children is $375.20 a week after tax.
The minimum amount being $210.13 per week!
You can’t get a benefit from Work and Income for the period you get student allowance.
You still receive your student allowance payments over your study breaks if your break is three weeks or less. For longer breaks, you can’t get your student allowance.
If you can get an accommodation benefit, it is paid automatically with your student allowance.
We pay your student allowance directly to your bank account.
f you are under 40, you can get a student allowance for tertiary study for up to 200 weeks.
If you are 40 or over, you can get it for up to 120 weeks.
These are lifetime limits for your student allowance.
If you get student allowance, you could get accommodation benefit.
Accommodation benefit:
You can't get an accommodation benefit if you:
- live with a parent, unless you have a child in your care
- live in a home provided by your parents, unless:
- you pay market rent
- you pay the costs associated with home ownership
- have a child in your care
- over 24, living with your partner and your combined income is $423.92 or more before tax a week.
Student loan information -
A Student Loan can help you finance your study. It’s made up of three parts:
- course fees – for the compulsory fees charged by your education provider
- course-related costs – to buy materials or services for your course
- living costs – to help with your weekly expenses.
You choose which parts you need.
You have to pay back your student loan, so borrow only what you need.
To get a student loan you usually have to be:
- enrolled on a tertiary course
- studying full-time or limited full-time, or meet StudyLink’s requirements for part-time study
- a New Zealand citizen, or meet residency requirements
- under 55 when your course starts, for course-related costs and living costs borrowing – there’s no upper age limit for course fees borrowing.
You’ll also need to:
- sign a contract with the government
- nominate a contact person in New Zealand.
If you get a student loan, you’ll need to pass at least half the work of your previous study to get it again.
You can usually borrow some or all of your compulsory course fees.
You can usually borrow up to $1,000 a year for course-related costs.
You can usually borrow up to $176.86 a week for living costs.
You can get a student loan for study with a value of up to seven 'equivalent full-time students' orEFTS, which is about seven or eight years of full-time study. This is your lifetime limit for a student loan.
You can usually borrow up to $176.86 a week for living costs, if you are full-time or approved limited full-time study.
If you can get a student allowance, you usually can't get a student loan for living costs. If you can still borrow for living costs, how much you can borrow is reduced by the amount of your student allowance after tax.
If your student loan for living costs is approved before your student allowance, you'll receive your living costs payments until you start getting your student allowance.
When your student allowance is approved, if there is a back payment due we will use it to repay the difference in your student loan living costs for the same period.
Unlike your student allowance, your student loan for living costs is not affected by any other income you earn.
However, if you do start to earn other income it's a good idea to reduce your living costs borrowing, because what you borrow you have to pay back.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/79433798/Students-are-challenging-decisions-on-their-allowances-through-reviews
Students are challenging decisions on their allowances through reviews:
The allowance is for people from a low income background.
Helps people that may not be able to study without the financial support.
The largest amount of refusal of allowances is because parental income.
Student allowances help people that may not be able to study without that support. Is this actually correct?
44588 students have just allowance and 35084 have allowance and loan - 2014 statistics
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1606/S00345/no-surprises-in-statistics-nz-data.htm
It is hard to get started coming out of university into entry-level jobs of a low pay, and for students futures they are beginning a step behind with no money to their name and in their mid-twenties.
“We know from our own research that a large number of students are graduating with large loans and this is stopping them from getting started in life”.
“We know that 70% of students think their debt will affect their ability to buy a house and 36% think it will affect their decision to have children. Students believe their debt will impact on their ability to save for retirement with only 5% not seeing this as an issue.”
“If this government cares about supporting all people to retire well, then it needs to take a long hard look at free tertiary education. We know free tertiary education has set up older generations with a prosperous work life and a good retirement. It’s inter-generational theft if we deny today’s students the same”.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=11678604
Opinion piece with some interesting points surrounding the inequalities of money, students, debt etc.
"Free tertiary education. It used to be possible here. I don't want to start banging on about taxing the super-rich again, but it certainly wouldn't hurt, right? I'm not talking about the $250k salary rich. I'm talking about owning a private island and a house in Hawaii rich."
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1606/S00332/student-loans-are-contributing-to-growing-inequality.htm
Student loans are contributing to growing in-equality
Article discussing the difference between the richer and the poorer and how this is developing due to the student loans, looking at classes, and race.
Riggs says New Zealand has to cut the cost of education if it wants to restore a more equal and balanced society.
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/388448/nz-wealth-distribution-worst-decade
New Zealand's wealth distribution worst
Very recent article.
European people have an individual median net worth of $114,000 compared to $33,000 for people of Asian descent, $23,000 for Maori, and $12,000 for Pacific people.
Our youth are among the poorest in society. People aged between 15-24 had the lowest individual median net worth of any age group at just $1000. Most young people have no assets but do have debt. Student loans are the most common debt.
Mr Key said New Zealand's tax system redistributed wealth, with those on lower incomes paying less tax than the benefits they received through Working For Families.
This article is interesting information around how valuable studying is and the benifits towards the future. It touches on student loans and repaying them amounts etc.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/297912/student-debt-a-ticking-bomb-labour
Student loan - a ticking bomb
720,000 people have student loans.
"For students, it's the implications around really big topics such as home ownership, retirement savings, the decision to have a family or study at a higher level. These options are being removed from students because of their debt."
Tertiary education should be free.
Students who remained in New Zealand paid off their students loans on average in fewer than six years and the median student loan balance was currently just over $14,000, Mr Key said.
Personally I do not believe the median loan is just 14,000. After one year of uni education I have more than that for a loan.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff-nation/assignments/how-did-your-student-loan-affect-you/13316356/My-student-loan-misery-I-owe-127-000
Students personal opinion on owing 127 thousand.
Had any of the ramifications of taking on such a huge loan been explained to me, I would have chosen a different (cheaper) institution to complete my qualification.
Since I became an overseas borrower, I have made the required repayments every year, and still my student loan sky rockets. This is because of the interest penalty applied to overseas borrowers, and not to borrowers who reside in New Zealand. Why is there a penalty for leaving New Zealand? Is it because the government wants me to stay in a country where there are already too many pilots for jobs?
From this research I have decided that I would like to pursue this further. I will now go back to mind mapping and deciding what areas and equalities/in-equalities that branch from this topic.
Mind-Mapping -
Topic idea 2 - Are we giving the next generation an equal chance?
In-equality or equality?Looking at how we were born into a liveable world but the last 20 years of our existence has caused so many extensions and largely impacted the environment, if we don't start acting now by reducing our carbon footprint, saving trees and trying to have less of a wastage footprint our future generations will be born in-equal to us into an unliveable earth.
Problem: When reading the brief it discusses a societal issue, is this a societal issue or an environmental issue? I believe this topic in this light would be a good in-equality to discuss but will this be appropriate to the brief?
Research around this subject:
https://www.equalitytrust.org.uk/equality-and-global-warmingEquality and Global warming:
During the next 40 years or so carbon emissions will have to be cut by 80 or 90 percent. Politics for perhaps the next generation will be dominated by environmental issues: either with cutting carbon emissions or with the results of our failure to do so. It is therefore important to see how the creation of a sustainable economic system is dependent on greater equality.
economic growth no longer brings real benefits to the rich countries
evidence that economic growth no longer produces increases in happiness, life expectancy, or levels of wellbeing. In addition, the evidence on the prevalence of ill-health and a wide range of social problems shows that for the highly developed affluent countries to get richer still does not improve outcomes, but increasing equality does.
People are unlikely to change their way of life and make cuts if the rich are allowed to produce 10 times the carbon emissions of the poor by continuing to drive bigger cars, heat bigger houses, take holidays by air, and consumes more of everything.
We need to get together as equals to give further generations the equal chance we received.
We are at a turning point in human history. For centuries the best way of improving the quality of life has been to raise material living standards. But we have now come to the end of what economic growth can do for developed countries. Measures of well-being or of happiness no longer rise with economic growth. Even though health goes on improving in rich countries, that improvement is no longer related to economic growth. We also know that rates of depression and anxiety have risen over the last fifty years or so.
This webpage has very valid points which I believe in and could really form my societal issue surrounding these topics and the importance of coming together for the future generations to have the equal chances we were born with.
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