PETALING JAYA: For a 34-year-old woman, it is an uphill battle to continue repaying her National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) loan.
Jessie (not her real name) said she graduated with a degree in business administration in 2014.
Before pursuing the course, she took a RM41,000 student loan from PTPTN, which came with a monthly repayment obligation of RM306.67.
But her first job as a retail executive in a shopping mall paid her a gross salary of only RM1,800.
After statutory deductions, her take-home pay was RM1,500.
With RM400 for room rent and another RM400 for her ageing parents, she had just RM700 left for food, transport and other expenses.
“There was no way I could meet my obligation to PTPTN,” she said.
Not wanting to default entirely, she chose to pay whatever she could – about RM100 to RM150 a month – hoping the payments would keep her from serious trouble.
This arrangement lasted for years until she moved to better-paying jobs and could pay the required amount.
Then came the Covid-19 pandemic. Within two months of the movement control order, she was jobless.
PTPTN granted a 10-month loan repayment exemption, but by the time it ended, Jessie said she was still without stable employment and had to tighten her belt.
She relied on her Employees Provident Fund withdrawals to survive.
To make ends meet, she took up part-time work at a resort’s housekeeping department for RM10 an hour as well as assisted small businesses with bookkeeping and import-export document tracking. Finding full-time employment was difficult, she said.
Her skills were in corporate social responsibility project management, and few companies prioritised that while struggling to recover from the pandemic.
Between 2021 and 2023, her financial situation remained dire.
Jessie said for some months, she could afford only RM100 for PTPTN, while there were months she could not pay anything at all.
Last year, she secured a one-year contract as an artificial intelligence trainer. The salary was sufficient to resume her monthly PTPTN payments.
In mid-2024, she received an e-mail from PTPTN demanding full repayment of her remaining RM30,000 within 14 days or face bankruptcy proceedings.
She tightened her belt again and paid as much as she could, reducing her outstanding debt to about RM29,000.
PTPTN then issued another e-mail demanding full repayment again within 14 days, this time warning that she would be blacklisted from travelling abroad.
“That doesn’t matter to me as I can’t afford to travel anyway.”
With her contract ending next month and no confirmation of renewal, Jessie is once again job hunting.
“I will not apologise for being slow at repaying. Maybe some of us are not so skilled at scoring high-paying jobs after graduating.
“But I will definitely honour my debt obligation eventually.”
