„Ich habe keinen einzigen Cent meines 70.000 Pfund schweren Studienkredits zurückgezahlt, seit ich Großbritannien verlassen habe – und werde das auch nie tun.“

My partner pays £12 a month. Her interest is over £100. She’ll never pay it off.

You know what I fully agree with what he said:

“I’m not against the idea of a social contract”, says David, “I just don’t think student loans are equal or fair. The idea that interest can spiral to the extent that it has – where I’m being charged an annual interest rate of 7.9pc on my balance – is absurd. Plus, the fact that the system has been implemented by a generation who had their education for free makes it even more unfair”

Fuck the UK government and their student loans, and good on him for avoiding paying it. Can’t wait till I do the same in a year or two.

“The idea that interest can spiral to the extent that it has – where I’m being charged an annual interest rate of 7.9pc on my balance – is absurd. Plus, the fact that the system has been implemented by a generation who had their education for free makes it even more unfair.”

Totally fair. 8% rate is extortionate to begin with. 

This is essentially a tax on social mobility levied against all classes lower than the middle.

I totally get it. I have a health condition that is potentially life shortening so there’s no hope in hell of me paying it off at present, but even were that scrubbed, I suspect I’d still struggle. I’m a public sector worker earning just under the UK average. We need to wind back the clock on universities, and go back to the old system where the state footed the bill for the brightest and best to saturate themselves in culture and produce great art and literature. Those of a more technical bent should be herded towards the sciences, with an eye to practical outputs like new medicines, and the rest should be going into trades or vocational apprenticeships. What we have now is the worst of all worlds: a bloated Higher Education sector, all but fully captured by international students who drive up grade inflation; universities have invested in glossy student pads rather than lecturers and research facilities and seem more interested in milking the children of decaying Chinese dynasties than servicing home-grown talent. It’s a disgrace.

As as British citizen, living abroad with something close to 60k uni debt, I find it irresponsible to not keep SLC in the loop.

I’ve worked abroad every year since graduating, they send me a letter this time every year, I tell them how much I make, and that’s that. Out of 5 years working abroad, I only ever made repayments for one of those years.

I have colleagues who ignore SLC. None of us ever intend to return to the UK, but what if we have to for whatever reason? I don’t want a nasty surprise waiting for me.

Without sounding like a pretentious cunt, at my job we all make a very good salary in a pretty low COL country, and have plenty of disposable income. Making repayments to SLC, if necessary, makes barely a dent into my monthly budget.

I went 10 years without paying, but then I moved back 🙁 Only 15 years left at least

Turning education into for-profit is always going to end up badly. The people running the universities know they are in the same position as other large entities where the government will bail them out once all the value has been extracted.

Student loans are a scam. They’re bad loans given to young people who don’t really grasp the fuill extent of the problem they’ll be giving themselves in years to come. The interest alone is abhorrent.

I was “lucky” that mine was *only* £12k for two years (loan+maintenance per year). But that ended up being money I was unable to save and use to put towards a house. I fear for the social mobility being lost to those now with lifelong debts that will hinder them.

The SLC should up its game and go after some of these people. They need to face the consequences of their (in)actions. The guy in this article comes across as extremely smug and self centred.

I naturally stopped paying when I moved overseas and wasn’t in the tax system- this was mid 2000s. They started contacting my parents and asking about me, my salary, my whereabouts.

I’m actually not even sure what is the bigger problem to be honest. The debt we’re saddling people with is ridiculous. Especially with the limited repayment period, we know its kind of pointless given the overall low rate of repayment anyway. But on top of that there surely has to be an issue where we seem to have walked into a position where getting a good quality degree and working what is supposed to be a decent middle class professional lifestyle still leaves you in a position where ~£30-40k is pretty much the bracket you’re expected to hit and inhabit for most of your life. That rate has basically not changed for as long as I’ve been in the workforce at least, whereas the cost of everything has doubled.

I’m sure a big idea if you were trying to run a loan system like this as anything more than an utterly cynical ploy to take HE costs off the state spending book, part of the calculation ought to be that the people getting these kinds of qualifications ought to enjoy such a rate of wage-growth that they easily outpace the interest and can actually afford to repay the damn thing.

As it stands I’m also still not quite sure how its been blatantly clear that the student debt building up in the background is a ticking time bomb, everyone knows its worth pennies to the pounds written on paper, it has a very solid cut-off when its going to go off, we all know and are conscious of this, yet its like only in the last maybe year or two people seemed to start noticing? For years I’ve been talking about this issue and half the responses just seem to be some variant of “well its not real debt anyway so it doesn’t matter”, “its just a graduate tax not a loan” lol…

I’m from NZ and the position was yes you have an INSANELY EXPENSIVE loan, but we won’t charge you interest on the principal …. unless you go overseas for 6 months or more. Which stings a lot of kiwis as many want and need to travel to utilise their degree and gain experience due to a limited job market, but… at least it’s a choice.

If the UK won’t make higher education free, then can’t we at LEAST consider a similar tack in relation to interest? It’s disheartening enough when students are already getting massive loans in a cost of living crisis, when as a country we can’t be sure that will actually turn into a profitable career/lifestyle where they’ll be able to support themselves. It’s just further killing students morale and ability to ever get ahead.

Come on Labour and make an actual change to this situation! There are so many options!

Someone (me) is paying for this debt. It’s the same as a credit card APR going up as fraud does. As unfair as the system is, someone has to pay. Currently its costing me retirement and my chances of owning a home. For everyone dodging the system and telling the telegraph of all papers should be ashamed

I’d disagree with them if it weren’t for the fact that:

1. English and Welsh students are penalised in a way their Scottish counterparts aren’t

2. They didn’t have to compete with foreign students for whom grading standards are lower

I’ve got £55k on mine the last time I checked, I graduated in 2017. What pissed me off a lot was tutors went on strike and barely had any lectures in 3rd year and still had to pay full £9,000. To top it off I also did “a year in industry” and STILL had to pay £4,500 even though I wasn’t at uni!

Oh no. We tried to saddle our young with atrociously high debt for higher education if they don’t have rich parents. And now some of those young are leaving our country and not paying the enormous debt. Woe is us.