JUST STOP THE INTEREST!! You take out a loan, you pay it back. You should not be able to take out a loan where the interest explodes based on what you earn while the lender changes the T&Cs every few years?!
Charly_030 on
Things seemed to work ok back when there were student grants.
I personally believe unversity education should be free for most degrees. Im not sure most university education warrants a degree though. Most people could start work after college and be in a better position that someone heavily in debt with a useless degree. Most jobs prefer experience to a degree anyway.
Jaded_Strain_3753 on
Unfortunately the state needs to tax graduates to redistribute money to wealthy pensioners. Now be good little PAYE piggies and get back to work.
ResponsiblePatient72 on
Or just cap the amount of interest on them? Don’t think i’ve ever met anyone who wouldn’t happily pay off the loan based on the agreement they signed up to.
_Revolting_Peasant on
The idea that we should charge our young for the basic social responsibility of teaching them is insane.
Wooden_Gazelle763 on
The social contract is broken. The older generations had free tuition while workers paid for it. Now the older generations’ holidays are paid for by workers with massive student loans. Totally unfair.
mixxituk on
Might as well left it as free/supported education lol cheers Nick CleggÂ
CFox21 on
I don’t think writing off the loans is even what people are asking for. The real problem is the interest and rule changes after the loan has been taken out.
BalianofReddit on
Id be fine with them resetting it to the principle amount plus cpi over the period and going forward.
They really shouldn’t be punishing people for getting an education with worse terms than that.
Even just making it so people pay back just the principle amount would be fine.
And raise the repayment boundary in accordance with wage growth.
HospitalAmazing1445 on
Rachel Reeves: Student loans are fair and proportionate.
Tuition Fees when Rachel Reeves went to University: £0
xxxxxxxxxooxxxxxxxxx on
I wrote mine off by moving abroad and ignoring SLC. Â
I dropped out anyway, and they had said the £27k threshold would rise.Â
Livelih00d on
The majority of its going to be written off at this rate. Student loans are such a joke in this country.
pjs-1987 on
It should always have been paid out of general taxation, just like everything else.
Magical_Mariposa on
The amount of student loan I had when I left uni was about £9k, now it’s around £36k at least. I’ve stopped looking at this point. That’s never getting paid off, increasing constantly. It’s ridiculous. Paying £9k off would have been fine but the amount in interest added, no way
YoshiMK on
How about get rid of the interest. Recalculate everyone’s back to as if it was 0% the entire time
sdbest on
That student debt exists at all is a massive political failure. The best investment a nation can make is in the education of its citizens. One of the worst policies a government can pursue is entrapping its citizens in a lifetime of debt.
ElvishMystical on
The notion of charging young people for their education is utter lunacy.
This is like someone stealing your smartphone and selling it back to you.
It’s just as bonkers as selling you a printer for your computer and charging you for all the ink you use.
Weekly_Mammoth6926 on
I’m just glad there’s a bit of momentum behind calling this shit out. I feel like we should cap repayments at the initial amount borrowed. That way we could refund those who have paid more, but people still pay for their own education.
Jezza977 on
Paid off my postgraduate loan today worth £000s – the interest rate charged on it (6.2%) was diabolical.
The idea that somebody in the equivalent role to me has £600 a month more disposable income than me just because their parents paid for their university education it’s crazy.
The whole system needs reform. Was in a very fortunate position where I could readily pay off the debt. Millions of people will not be in a the same position.
Combined with my undergraduate loan I was effectively taxed 57% on every additional £1 I earned.
It’s a stealth tax that is designed to limit social mobility- nobody can convince me otherwise.
Tip: if you’re looking at paying off your student loan, request a settlement figure from the SLC.
ElonDoneABellamy on
This needs to be properly pitched and logically thought out. I’m still paying off my student loan so obviously I’m in support, but a common argument I see put forward is that ‘vulnerable teenagers didn’t know what they were getting into!!’
There’s no universe where this can coexist with votes for 16 year olds.
I’m personally of the view that teenagers are too stupid to be signing up to these loans but I also think they shouldn’t be able to vote on that basis
mikemac1997 on
By the time I graduated, my student loan balance was £76,250. I’m not even a decade out of uni and the last time I checked, it was in excess of £108,000
All of this so that I can contribute to the economy by bringing productivity.
Hashtagbarkeep on
I’m for it. Would have been nice to have this done before I paid mine off, but I’m no crab in a bucket
djkhaled108 on
Wouldn’t make a difference if they halved my loan, it would still keep going up with interest and id never pay it off
sv21js on
I was so ignorant of this when I took out my loans. It didn’t sound like a crazy amount to pay off with a graduate salary (9k), I thought I’d easily take care of it in a few years time. I was young and dumb and will be paying the price for decades to come.
Conscious-Ball8373 on
Of course they do, because they think it won’t cost them anything.
In reality, the government borrows based on its balance sheet and all those loans are listed as assets on the balance sheet. So if you write off those debts, the government will have higher borrowing costs and taxes will have to go up to fund it.
Then see how many people support it.
lizzywbu on
The social contract is completely broken.
Young people, especially the under 35s, are getting absolutely shafted right now. Meanwhile the over 60s get everything paid for them.
postbox134 on
I already paid mine back (moved abroad) – how would forgiveness be fair?
alexmlb3598 on
Just to give some context:
I graduated in Sept 2021, with £54k of student debt (integrated masters, but minimum maintenance loan). Since then, the interest added £23k to that, giving an effective total of £77k. To pay off *just* the interest under the current method, I would’ve needed an average salary of ~£87k.
Who on earth is graduating from uni and going straight into a six-figure salary?!
o_oli on
Had no idea it was that bad reading some of the comments here. I’m fortunate to have a plan 1 loan, which seems 200x better.
FoxDesigner2574 on
It’s now at the point a graduate tax would make more sense – you take out a loan and pay eg 0.5% of your salary above a threshold until you are sixty or until you hit a maximum payment ceiling. That way you don’t have any loans hanging around your neck and the more you get out of it the more you pay back.
Budpets on
I’ve always seen it as a monthly tax for the next 25 years or whenever it gets written off. I should’ve been a tradie
ShitsnGrits on
I don’t mind having to pay back the loan, I knew it would be a 30-year term when I took it out.
However, freezing the repayment threshold is callous. We were told it would go up every year. It just feels like this along with fiscal drag is just squeezing graduates.
CaterpillarLoud8071 on
Setting out the terms fully for the length of the contract would be a good move. Everything should be linked either to inflation or income growth. And actually committing to a system rather than randomly changing student loans every few years.
Of course, tuition fees being the main funding source of universities has been a massive failure – courses are no longer linked to the needs of society, industry or academia. No surprise graduates can’t get jobs, their degrees were sold on the basis of a fun 3 years of uni rather than employability.
HospitalAmazing1445 on
Mine were in the first tranche, where tuition was £1000/year and interest was capped at inflation + 1% or 1.5% (IIRC)
TBH – that felt reasonably fair.
The current incarceration is not.
The toffees are so high that the vast majority of graduates will spend years, perhaps their entire career, not even scratching the principal. And then the interest rates are set up so right about when someone earns enough to meaningfully start paying off the loan the interest rate spikes to put that like a little further out of reach, and then shortly after you get to the new payoff threshold your personal allowance is phased out to give you an effective tax rate of 62% + your student loan payments.
This is a graduate tax in all but name.
Perhaps the most asinine part even is that those who financially benefit the most from their degrees (finance sector, big law, etc) are the only ones who aren’t facing this defacto tax their whole working lives.
/I mean incarnation, but incarceration also kinda works for how this traps young people into a lifetime of debt.
Easy-Equal on
Should just go back to “free” for all UK nationals but limit it to two times then any more you pay
Euphoric-Neon-2054 on
It took me 12 years to pay off mine. It was a massive weight around my neck and I am in full support honestly of cancelling it all for everyone.
Their generation got free university. Ours get shafted on every level and get told to be thankful for it.
36 Comments
JUST STOP THE INTEREST!! You take out a loan, you pay it back. You should not be able to take out a loan where the interest explodes based on what you earn while the lender changes the T&Cs every few years?!
Things seemed to work ok back when there were student grants.
I personally believe unversity education should be free for most degrees. Im not sure most university education warrants a degree though. Most people could start work after college and be in a better position that someone heavily in debt with a useless degree. Most jobs prefer experience to a degree anyway.
Unfortunately the state needs to tax graduates to redistribute money to wealthy pensioners. Now be good little PAYE piggies and get back to work.
Or just cap the amount of interest on them? Don’t think i’ve ever met anyone who wouldn’t happily pay off the loan based on the agreement they signed up to.
The idea that we should charge our young for the basic social responsibility of teaching them is insane.
The social contract is broken. The older generations had free tuition while workers paid for it. Now the older generations’ holidays are paid for by workers with massive student loans. Totally unfair.
Might as well left it as free/supported education lol cheers Nick CleggÂ
I don’t think writing off the loans is even what people are asking for. The real problem is the interest and rule changes after the loan has been taken out.
Id be fine with them resetting it to the principle amount plus cpi over the period and going forward.
They really shouldn’t be punishing people for getting an education with worse terms than that.
Even just making it so people pay back just the principle amount would be fine.
And raise the repayment boundary in accordance with wage growth.
Rachel Reeves: Student loans are fair and proportionate.
Tuition Fees when Rachel Reeves went to University: £0
I wrote mine off by moving abroad and ignoring SLC. Â
I dropped out anyway, and they had said the £27k threshold would rise.Â
The majority of its going to be written off at this rate. Student loans are such a joke in this country.
It should always have been paid out of general taxation, just like everything else.
The amount of student loan I had when I left uni was about £9k, now it’s around £36k at least. I’ve stopped looking at this point. That’s never getting paid off, increasing constantly. It’s ridiculous. Paying £9k off would have been fine but the amount in interest added, no way
How about get rid of the interest. Recalculate everyone’s back to as if it was 0% the entire time
That student debt exists at all is a massive political failure. The best investment a nation can make is in the education of its citizens. One of the worst policies a government can pursue is entrapping its citizens in a lifetime of debt.
The notion of charging young people for their education is utter lunacy.
This is like someone stealing your smartphone and selling it back to you.
It’s just as bonkers as selling you a printer for your computer and charging you for all the ink you use.
I’m just glad there’s a bit of momentum behind calling this shit out. I feel like we should cap repayments at the initial amount borrowed. That way we could refund those who have paid more, but people still pay for their own education.
Paid off my postgraduate loan today worth £000s – the interest rate charged on it (6.2%) was diabolical.
The idea that somebody in the equivalent role to me has £600 a month more disposable income than me just because their parents paid for their university education it’s crazy.
The whole system needs reform. Was in a very fortunate position where I could readily pay off the debt. Millions of people will not be in a the same position.
Combined with my undergraduate loan I was effectively taxed 57% on every additional £1 I earned.
It’s a stealth tax that is designed to limit social mobility- nobody can convince me otherwise.
Tip: if you’re looking at paying off your student loan, request a settlement figure from the SLC.
This needs to be properly pitched and logically thought out. I’m still paying off my student loan so obviously I’m in support, but a common argument I see put forward is that ‘vulnerable teenagers didn’t know what they were getting into!!’
There’s no universe where this can coexist with votes for 16 year olds.
I’m personally of the view that teenagers are too stupid to be signing up to these loans but I also think they shouldn’t be able to vote on that basis
By the time I graduated, my student loan balance was £76,250. I’m not even a decade out of uni and the last time I checked, it was in excess of £108,000
All of this so that I can contribute to the economy by bringing productivity.
I’m for it. Would have been nice to have this done before I paid mine off, but I’m no crab in a bucket
Wouldn’t make a difference if they halved my loan, it would still keep going up with interest and id never pay it off
I was so ignorant of this when I took out my loans. It didn’t sound like a crazy amount to pay off with a graduate salary (9k), I thought I’d easily take care of it in a few years time. I was young and dumb and will be paying the price for decades to come.
Of course they do, because they think it won’t cost them anything.
In reality, the government borrows based on its balance sheet and all those loans are listed as assets on the balance sheet. So if you write off those debts, the government will have higher borrowing costs and taxes will have to go up to fund it.
Then see how many people support it.
The social contract is completely broken.
Young people, especially the under 35s, are getting absolutely shafted right now. Meanwhile the over 60s get everything paid for them.
I already paid mine back (moved abroad) – how would forgiveness be fair?
Just to give some context:
I graduated in Sept 2021, with £54k of student debt (integrated masters, but minimum maintenance loan). Since then, the interest added £23k to that, giving an effective total of £77k. To pay off *just* the interest under the current method, I would’ve needed an average salary of ~£87k.
Who on earth is graduating from uni and going straight into a six-figure salary?!
Had no idea it was that bad reading some of the comments here. I’m fortunate to have a plan 1 loan, which seems 200x better.
It’s now at the point a graduate tax would make more sense – you take out a loan and pay eg 0.5% of your salary above a threshold until you are sixty or until you hit a maximum payment ceiling. That way you don’t have any loans hanging around your neck and the more you get out of it the more you pay back.
I’ve always seen it as a monthly tax for the next 25 years or whenever it gets written off. I should’ve been a tradie
I don’t mind having to pay back the loan, I knew it would be a 30-year term when I took it out.
However, freezing the repayment threshold is callous. We were told it would go up every year. It just feels like this along with fiscal drag is just squeezing graduates.
Setting out the terms fully for the length of the contract would be a good move. Everything should be linked either to inflation or income growth. And actually committing to a system rather than randomly changing student loans every few years.
Of course, tuition fees being the main funding source of universities has been a massive failure – courses are no longer linked to the needs of society, industry or academia. No surprise graduates can’t get jobs, their degrees were sold on the basis of a fun 3 years of uni rather than employability.
Mine were in the first tranche, where tuition was £1000/year and interest was capped at inflation + 1% or 1.5% (IIRC)
TBH – that felt reasonably fair.
The current incarceration is not.
The toffees are so high that the vast majority of graduates will spend years, perhaps their entire career, not even scratching the principal. And then the interest rates are set up so right about when someone earns enough to meaningfully start paying off the loan the interest rate spikes to put that like a little further out of reach, and then shortly after you get to the new payoff threshold your personal allowance is phased out to give you an effective tax rate of 62% + your student loan payments.
This is a graduate tax in all but name.
Perhaps the most asinine part even is that those who financially benefit the most from their degrees (finance sector, big law, etc) are the only ones who aren’t facing this defacto tax their whole working lives.
/I mean incarnation, but incarceration also kinda works for how this traps young people into a lifetime of debt.
Should just go back to “free” for all UK nationals but limit it to two times then any more you pay
It took me 12 years to pay off mine. It was a massive weight around my neck and I am in full support honestly of cancelling it all for everyone.
Their generation got free university. Ours get shafted on every level and get told to be thankful for it.
Cretins.