Students’ legal opinion challenges allowance cuts

The Bill of Rights gives no legal right to cut thousands of students' allowances, student representatives say.

Changes introduced in May's Budget meant married students under 25 with no dependants would face a parental income test when trying to obtain a student allowance.

But the University Students' Association says it has obtained an opinion which suggests the Government's "highly technocratic" use of the Bill of Rights to cut allowances to married, divorced and financially independent students might be illegal.

The opinion, from a Wellington barrister, says it does not follow that the right way to remedy discrimination is to remove the favoured position of affected students.

"This is a cynical use of the Bill of Rights which ignores other discrimination faced by students under the student loan scheme, like the fact that women take twice as long to repay their loans and that students are means tested on their parents' income until they are 25," students' association co-president Fleur Fitzsimons said.

"A 25-year-old can buy alcohol, vote, drive and get married. It is ridiculous that the Government continues to claim that these students are reliant on their parents to clothe and feed them.

"If the Government was really committed to overcoming discrimination and consistency ... it would ensure that every student is entitled to a living allowance and that no student is forced to borrow to live."

- NZPA