Student loan repayments are completely unfair

I think op means bluntly. After 6-7 years it would drop off your credit report. Again fine for rich who don't need to declare ccj's for mortgage not great trashing credit rating for us average earners.
But blunty yea they wouldn't have to pay it back or with little interest if do a DRO or A DMP .

Commercial loans are not written off, why do you keep saying this? If you think that’s how they work why don’t you just take out a commercial loan and pay off your student loan with it? See how you like the terms and conditions of that loan in comparison?

Ambitious young people also need to realise that they are taking a serious gamble on their ability to finish the course.

I know several young people who didn't graduate for various reasons, including cases of complete burnout and exhaustion (3 years into a 5 year course), parental bereavement, and serious illness.

I see schools and parents pushing young people with less than optimum mental health or questionable maturity or motivation onto university courses, out of the very best of intentions, but they are at serious risk of never graduating and being indebted for life without any of the benefits, and having lost the opportunity to ever go back, because you can only get undergrad student finance once.

And don’t get me started on the unfairness of the household income assessment.

The whole system is fundamentally unfair on so many different levels and needs to be scrapped and redesigned from scratch.

@Psychologymam I don’t necessarily disagree with a lot of what you said, but let’s be realistic, we can’t (won’t) even fund primary and secondary education appropriately in this country, look at the SEN bin fire, I think before we get into universal higher education we have got to fix what’s happening in state education under 18/19. But I cynically agree with you it’s not in the interests of those who really control the country.

Completely unfair. My parents could pay mine which is a privilege but it’s very unfair that if you have the money up front you avoid the interest - it’s a barrier to young people from lower income families accessing higher education. Plus professional class not paid well in UK after university which is another disincentive. My view is that the “ruling” class in the UK do not want a highly educated population though - might lead to questioning things like inherited power (house of lords!!), why so many prime ministers come from one or two uni courses, the tax exemptions one can get if wealthy, where government contracts go etc.

I can concede that like the pay gap there is definitely something in the way it impacts women that could be studied and explored, but let’s not pretend the OP has cobbled together a coherent enough argument for that (and if I’m remembering the thread correctly it wasn’t her that raised it, someone else did). It’s a hugely complex issue that is not resolved by simply scrapping interest.

I don’t think the length of plan 1 is unfair, plan 1 is much more sustainable to pay off, and there are a ways to have it written off if you become disabled. I was also acutely aware of my term when I took out my loan, unfairness would be not knowing. So no, I don’t think it’s a fair statement.

@Sammy900 if you want to rally the “guys” to your individual cause (I say individual because there is very little public outcry for a review of plan 1) you really need to educate yourself to make your argument convincing. Your post and comments are littered with nonsense.

1. why do you think your loan will not expire after 25 years? The write off period depends on the date of which you took out the loan, the terms were not changed after the fact, it depends if you took the loan out before or after 1/9/06.
2. the term graduate tax has not come from the the government or SLC, this is a concept used by Martin Lewis to help students and parents understand how student loans operate differently to commercial loans, it was not a term officially used to trick people into them.
3. you mention standard loans have shorter time periods, you’re comparing apples with pears, commercial loans are tailored to the interest rate, purpose and customer. Commercial loans do not have write off periods.

That is just what Ive taken from your opening post alone.

Yes, that's the basis of my issue with Plan 1. I got screwed by 2 lots of mat leave plus working pt while the kids were wee. Now stuck barely paying the interest on it and it will never be paid off. While DH who has never taken a career break and worked ft since graduating paid his plan 1 loan off 7 years ago.

ETA: I earn more gross now than DH but take home less due to student loan repayments.

Op is saying plan 1 the length of the term is unfair and disproportionately affects women.
This is a fair statement.

I don’t think there is anything fundamentally wrong with Plan 1 I think it was sustainable on the whole and doesn’t need reviewing, so the ‘race to the bottom’ statement doesn’t work with that I’m saying. It’s plan 2 and later that needs reviewing, the picture has changed since those of us did plan 1, with fees dramatically increasing.

People like the OP are trying to jump on the band wagon to improve their own situation without understanding just how disadvantaged plan 2 and later graduates are. OP needs to suck it up and pay, like the rest of us.

This is nonsense. Nurses have lots of opportunities to progress via clinical or education routes. Some specialist clinical roles will pay band 7 or 8A. They don’t have to go into management.

But it isn't a race to the bottom. Like anything. Cases can still be bad we don't have to rank them.

It would be lovely if like ordinary loans they got wiped off after 7 years if you couldn't pay it back...yes please!

You must know that this isn't how 'ordinary loans' work?

As someone with a plan 1 married to someone who has both a plan 1 and a plan 2 (because he did his teacher training a few years after graduating) - I honestly don't think there's much to moan about with a plan 1. I was horrified to see the difference between them and how much worse people a few years younger than me had it.

So you recognise that plan 2 and later are fundamentally less sustainable than plan 1?

😱😱

@Sammy900 I’m not angry? I just disagree with you and think you’re kidding yourself if you think the current wave against student loans will do anything to change yours. You’ve made zero attempt to recognise the contextual difference between the plans.

@Sammy900 ordinary loans are not simply written off after 7 years, I’m not sure if you’re financially illiterate or being obtuse. You are inconvenienced by your own mostly fair plan 1 loan because of your own life choices and trying to jump on the plan 2 and later band wagon currently happening which is a completely different situation to plan 1.

You are not in the same situation as plan 2 students, you are not paying more interest than you are paying off unless you’re earning so little you’re not at the threshold, and that’s on you. I think you’re being incredibly disingenuous trying to call out out the whole system when you fundamentally misunderstand it. If you want to take a stand about plan 2 and later crack on, but plan 1 is not the same.

I was on the original plan 1 and have paid it all back. I think I was around 36 when I finished paying it off. I am not a high earner (I was working at NHS band 4, then band 5 for the majority of the time, then band 6 for a few years, and then band 7 for maybe the final few years), but am single with no kids, and have always lived well within my means so I was able to overpay some months where I could. I’m glad I chose to do that then, what with the huge increases in cost of living now.

@Sammy900 well yes…what’s your point? That’s why there are financial penalties if you struggle to pay back commercial loans, and why student loans aren’t like normal loans.