Bitter pill to swallow: Single mum can't afford to study to become a nurse

Danielle Tesoriero, a single mother to 10-year-old daughter Ariana, wanted to complete a Bachelor of Nursing.

However, she said the need to work to support her daughter and the requirement to complete placements away from Warrnambool left her with no choice but to cease studying.

"I'm very disappointed," she said.

"I wanted to do it, I wanted to be a nurse but I would need to be away for four weeks (for placement) and I would need to pay for accommodation and find someone to look after my daughter."

Ms Tesorierio said she needed to continue to work to support herself and her daughter.

She said she also didn't want to have a HECS debt to pay off.

Ms Tesorierio is the third woman The Standard has spoken to this week who has expressed concerns about the rising cost of education.

Jess Mulcahy, 30, completed an arts/law degree at Deakin University from 2016-2021.

The single mother was working part-time and could only attend the 'cloud' campus online.

Ms Mulcahy said she was now wondering how long it would take her to pay off her debt, which is growing due to indexation.

"My HECS was $70,328 and when indexation was applied last year it jumped up to $75,322," she said.

Alex Priebbenow also has a HECS debt that is increasing each year.

"I completed my degree in 2014 with a HECS debt of just shy of $70,000," Dr Priebbenow said.

"I never made enough money to have to pay anything back and I then had three kids.

"My debt is sitting at $86,000 now after earning just shy of $6000 in interest last year alone."

MP Sarah Henderson, who is the opposition education spokeswoman, said the Albanese Government was reaping dividends from the misery of escalating student debt, with ATO data revealing Australians paid a record $2.9 billion in voluntary HELP debt repayments in 2022-23, up from $780 million in the previous year.

She said as a result of Labor's sky high inflation, the 2022-23 HELP indexation rate was 7.1 per cent, triggering a 272 per cent increase in voluntary repayments.

"Hit by a crippling 7.1 per cent increase in their student debts, 164,000 Australians made voluntary repayments averaging $17,636 in an attempt to pay down or pay off their debt," Ms Henderson said.

While Prime Minister Anthony Albanese acknowledged that HECS was an area the federal government needed "to do much better" on April 18, everyday Australians are faced with the anxiety of ballooning debts.

A petition was started by independent MP Dr Monique Ryan and has garnered 260,000 signatures.

"Young people are facing a housing crisis, a cost-of-living crisis, and a climate crisis - they shouldn't be facing a HECS debt crisis as well," the change.org petition says.