If tertiary education is made free by 2024, what happens to those us us with a student loan?

I'd rather a re-jigged allowance system, where people like my brother who joined the army at 17, left home, got a trade, bought a house, filled it with flatmates to keep afloat, got medically discharged after he got sick, could then qualify for a student allowance to study, where he couldn't because despite being completely financially independent he was under 25 and my parents were deemed to be earning too much (we aren't a wealthy household by any stretch, and our parents never footed the bill for anything past highschool).

A re-jigged student allowance system that closes loopholes accountants can game for the wealthy self-employed and lifts the lower end of the middle class where appropriate doesn't sound as sexy and simple for the voting public as 'free uni'

/r/newzealand Thread