Andrew Stott: IRD marketing and communications group manager on the department's plan to crack down on overseas student loan debt

Inland Revenue is cracking down on outstanding student loans - and has doubled its team working on overseas collections.

It's also putting more money into collecting debt in Australia and the UK.

The number of borrowers has risen by more than 5,000

The IRD's project lead Andrew Stott says about 150 people could face an arrest warrant.

"It's really about whether they're engaging with us or not. So if they're just ignoring all of our communications or they're leaving us no way to get in touch with them, then that's our last resort." 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Heather Do for clan what it seems that Inland Revenue
is finally cracking down on kiwis who now live overseas
but aren't paying their student loans back. IRD has doubled
the size of its crackdown team and it's giving names
to debt collectors in Australia to get the dollars back.
Andrew Scott is the project lead at ID for this
and he is with us. Hey Andrew, hey, he right. Well,
now that you've started handing over names to debt collectors

(00:21):
and cracking down, how what proportion of these people are
actually paying the money back?

Speaker 2 (00:27):
So we provided names to our Australian deck collectors, seven
thousand of them earlier this year. So far a thousand
of those have paid their debts, either in full or
in part. So that's pretty good going so far.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
Yeah, And why I think one of the most interesting
things that you're going to do is if the debt
is big enough and the person has been tardy enough,
if they come back to New Zealand for whatever reason,
and you guys get a hold of them, you will
arrest them and they will not be able to leave
the country. Is that right?

Speaker 2 (00:54):
I guess there's two things there. There's about one hundred
and fifty people who yet we'd look when they come
back to New Zealand be putting out a warrant for
the arrest, which means if they then tried to leave
the country, they'd be stopped. That's the extreme side. On
the other side, anybody who comes back to New Zealand
where they owe a thousand dollars or more outstanding will
be trying to get in contact with them.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
So how big does the dead have to be for
you guys, to arrest someone.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
It's not really about the size of the debt, although
we're talking between tens of thousands up to over one
hundred thousand. It's really about whether they're engaging with us
or not. So if they're just ignoring all of our communications,
or they're leaving us no way to get in touch
with them, then that's our last resort.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
How do you stop them from leaving the country again?
Do you cancel their ability to leave? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:39):
Essentially, they turn up at the airport and when they
go to check in, the arresting officer is called.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
And then in order to be able to leave again,
would they have to assure you that they are going
to start paying the money back.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
Yeah, we'd have a negotiation about how they're going to
handle their debt, and that might mean an immediate part
payment or some agreement that gives us confidence for that stuff.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
Good on you. How much of this money two point
two these guys living overseas O two point two billion dollars,
How much of it do you reckon you can actually
realistically get back.

Speaker 2 (02:11):
One of the things that people don't really know is
it's not twenty year old students who over this money
really for forty thousand. To the people, there's one hundred
and ten thousand borowers overseas are for forty thousand, of
them more than they've had their loan for more than
twenty years. Ia Duly fifties, late forties. They've been ignoring
it for a long time. But we've got no ability
to write any of that off. So we're ramping up

(02:33):
our activities to find them, compel them, and be shops
when they return.

Speaker 1 (02:37):
Good stuff, Andrew, best of luck, Love it, Andrew Scott
Iady project lead.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
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