Thoroughly pissed off about student loan repayments

[AngeloMysterioso]

I finished uni in 2009 and have been making student loan repayments for quite some time now. I decided to check online to see how much I had left to repay as my DH finished paying his off a few years ago, although he finished a few years before me and earns more than I do (I’ve also had a few periods of unemployment) I figured I can’t be too far behind him.

How wrong I was. Thanks to the interest, instead of being close to finished, my debt has actually gone up by over £2.5k- I originally borrowed under £19,000, now it’s nearly £21,500!!

I mean why the fuck am I bothering to make repayments at all, apparently the money I’ve paid back has just disappeared into the abyss!

How much have you been paying each month? That must give you a clue...

Have you actually been making payments? Are they showing on the statement from SLC?

Solidarity bump.

Having kids and working in the public sector means graduate tax, dh finished paying his off though.

Mine goes up every year by about £250 (balance about 14k now). To be honest I don't really take any interest in it, I'm pretty sure I'll never pay it off when I'm only paying £5 a month to it!

Have they definitely gone off your student loans account? I know sometimes the payments get stuck in the HMRC abyss and you need to call to sort it out. Happened to someone I know.

In fact I am going to claim some payments back (lump sum taken from bonus pay but earnt under the threshold for the tax year) as what's the point reducing it when the balance is going up anyway

To be fair, if you're paying off a small amount each month you must know that it'd take a very long time indeed to pay back £19k. It's the right thing to do though, it would be manifestly unfair to expect the taxpayer (most of whom will never benefit from going to university) to pay for you.

My student finance debt is 50k

Yes my payments got stuck with hmrc this year so in April I got my statement from SLC saying I'd made no payment this year so my loan amount had gone up. Considering I wave goodbye to £250 for it I wasn't pleased, but it was easily sorted by calling them.

loughing since the public purse hasnt deemed it fit to lift public sector pay freeze you - fairness hasnt been in my vocabulary for some time

I've been paying mine off for 7 years and this is the first year that I've actually paid off more than the interest gained in the year 😐

I graduated in 2002, back when uni was 'cheap'. I think my debt totalled around 12k and I'm almost finished paying it off. Around £1k to go & I'm public sector too. So yeah, it takes a while.

I paid quite a bit off mine when I was working (I was a high earner). Been a SAHM for a while now, I checked it yesterday and am back to owing about the same as j borrowed!
DH paid his off about 2 years ago, when he was 30.

Yes same here. Due to them only paying the money back annually yet the debt accruing interest monthly I pay back less a year than I accrue in interest. So each year the debt increases

They lost a whole year of my sister's payments so well worth keeping eyes on it.

That’s why charging such high tuition feels is stupid. Unless you’re a high earner, I doubt many of us will ever manage to pay off our student loans.

I don't earn enough to pay mine back. It will get written off when I'm 65 but unless public sector pay increases significantly I doubt I will make much of a dent in it.

I graduated in 2005 and still have £8.5k or thereabouts to pay off because of times when I didn't earn enough to pay it off.

If you earn close to the repayment threshold it doesn't surprise me you've not made much of a dent in it.

I owe nearly as much now as I did when I left. I'd feel bad, and had intended to start overpaying once my youngest starts FT education, until they flogged it off to some private company. Fuck that. I shall take my own sweet time.

I wouldn't mind so much if it was actually going down but it is the fact it increases every year that pisses me off. Only a 0.6 teacher so low repayments