Is anyone else going to have a student loan until age 65 (Plan 1 pre 2006)?

[studentloanuntil65]

I have a Plan 1 student loan and had no idea that I’d have the debt till 65 when I took out the loan in 1998, at age 18.

I’ve never been a high earner and took time out of employment to look after our children due to the high cost of childcare and no family support.

The interest has snowballed, even while I was working, and I’m never going to clear it before I’m 65.

It feels very unfair when I’m seeing that people on the other loans have theirs wiped out after 25 or 30 years. I’m 46 and have already had this loan hanging over me for over 25 years.

I didn’t realise until seeing a BBC article this morning that other people on plan 1 (2006 onwards loans) get theirs wiped after 25 years! Mine would already have been wiped. And if I’d been a year older I’d have had a full grant as my parents were low earners.

No, I’m not having to pay it back, but it’s still a weight on my shoulders knowing that I owe it. When I became a SAHM they wrote to me and told me that my husband had to write a letter to them confirming that he was supporting me, with evidence via bank statements, which seemed a bit ridiculous as I’m supposed to pay the loan back via PAYE when I earn enough.

Is anyone else in the same boat with Plan 1?

I'm not sure what your complaint is? You say it's "very unfair" but also you've never made any repayments, and you don't even receive statements any more.. how is this impacting your life? You've had a free ride at uni and somehow this is unfair to you, can you elaborate?

My first salary straight from uni was around £10k a year working a 37 hour week! It never increased by much!

You sound younger and like you weren’t on the same plan…

I’m in the same boat as you OP. Uni from 2000 for four years - didn’t pay fees and maximum loan as parents couldn’t contribute. I have been a part time teacher (plus maternity leave breaks) for last 18 years and I still owe £14000 which is approx what I owed when I graduated! It doesn’t bother me too much but I don’t know anyone else my age who still has there’s!
My kids will end up with £40-50k debt so I can’t complain too much.

Argh - THEIR’s not there’s. I’m not an English teacher…

It’s seeing all the petitions in the news about the other plans. When theirs although much higher, will be written off very early.

I’ve still got mine OP. I’m the same age as you, did a 4 year degree and 10 years out of work bringing up children. I’ll never pay it off.

I work hard and pay a bit off each month but due to the interest I’ll never clear it. It does bother me as my monthly wage doesn’t stretch to much in the current climate so that payment coming out each month is really noticeable for me.

Oh and you can definitely have an online account - I’ve just checked mine. It’s now on the gov.uk website rather than student loans company.

The BBC slides weren’t very clear - it mentioned Plan 1 being cleared after 25 years - I hadn’t realised some on the same plan had this.

Again, I’m not asking for comments from people on other plans, or for opinions on this plan compared to others etc - I thought it was pretty clear from my post 🤷‍♀️

Yes sorry I got confused by you saying you were plan 1 in the opening line, I’m on the 2006 plan. But all my comments still stand, you did a university degree and chose not to utilise it, that’s a lifestyle choice, whatever side of the spectrum you sit and whether you think the state should pay for higher education is moot the fact is we don’t do that in the UK, funding higher education is deemed a loan, it’s expected to help you earn more and you will return it, with interest.

Did you really think you could borrow thousands of pounds for something designed to help you earn more and just decide you wanted to earn less, be a SAHM and what just have the debt written off? Would you expect the same from a bank if you decided you regretted a purchase on your credit card?

I was on maximum loan, year before you, and it took many years of full time professional work to pay it off. It is paid off now though. But be wary of not keeping SLC updated - we went backpacking for 1.5 years and it was a term of the loan they were informed and they wanted to charge several hundred ££ per month we’d been away, as per the T&C’s - I had no idea, and that was back in 2010 so I imagine the cost has increased considerably by then. But if it won’t be paid off it won’t be paid off, I really wouldn’t worry about it.

Well there are thousands of people a few years younger who can, so…

Thousands of younger people too, at the end of the day any graduate from any of the plans can just choose to not earn enough to pay them back. You just have get over the fact it’s “hanging over you” a pretty small price to pay considering how most debt works and the fact there isn’t actually any negative consequence?

I took 4 years of loans as started over after the first year and finished in 2003. No idea how much I owe now, I remember about £3 a month being deducted from my salary at one point which just seemed utterly pointless on a £13k debt. Haven't paid any probably for well over a decade due to maternity / low wages / part time. But I don't worry about it, if I earn more at some point they'll start taking deductions again, but unless I suddenly go all career minded and get a high paying job, I've effectively had a very cheap degree.

I thought mortgage companies were now taking repayments into account?

I still have mine! It just goes up and up. Everything that I paid off for years has now been added back on again as I didn’t work for a few years. It’s over £20k now.

Yes it is.

The reason the write off date is earlier now is you can work, be paid well and still never pay it off. Whereas for OP’s plan it would be rare to be working in a relatively well paid job and not pay the loan off as it’s so small.

@SleeplessRoadsI don’t think there was much difference between 05 & 06 tbh.

It’s always been the case that active payments impact affordability, if you you earn £2000 but are making £50 student loan payment, the mortgage company will see it as £1950 income, not £2000. But that is moot if someone isn’t making repayments.

Comparison is the thief of joy! There will always be others you can see as having things better than you in many areas of life

It is not affecting you day to day and you do have to accept that you have made choices that have got you to this point. If the government suddenly found a huge pot of money under the bed and paid these loans off, those who have made different choices like pursuing challenging careers, working many hours, etc to pay theirs off would then feel aggrieved but there is no money and it isn't going to happen
I think you have to accept the world doesn't revolve around you and move on

How could that possibly work in a practical sense 😂 You got pregnant out of uni, your degre is now out of date, no one will employ you at graduate level but you must somehow use your degree. Just paying for uni in the first place would actually make more sense, even if it were a loan where the minimum repayment wasn't salary dependent (obviously not doable now but would have been when OP and I were at uni with £1k tuition fees).

I started uni late 90s (first year of fees). I borrowed £3kish a year. I've only earned enough to make repayments for a few years since then (worked very part time after children). My loan is now slightly more than I originally borrowed, won't be written off until I'm 65. I just ignore it tbh. If I ever earn more I'll pay some back but it's not affecting my life/mortgage/credit score!

I remember my younger sibling got in just before that too, my parents were relieved.

I graduated in 2007 and took out the maximum which was £3k per year (it was £4k per year for people whose parents earned less). So by the time I graduated it was £10k. Because it was the £9k plus had already accumulated £1k in interest.

How was yours only £3k - was that only for the tuition fees and you didn't take out a loan for living/rent each year? Did you live at home? I paid my £1k fees upfront each year but took the living costs loan or whatever it was called.

I also paid my 10k off. Since I've been a SAHM mum or worked part time for years now I dread to think what it would be now with all the interest! Probably tens of thousands.

I took out one for two years 97-98 to live on (no tuition fees at time). Think my payments were about £45 a month depending don’t think it took too long to pay off.

My sister paid off her student loans (late 90s/early 00s) despite not being a particularly high earner as she didn’t want debt hanging over her. I don’t think she earned enough to have to pay it off but did it anyway.

But the impact is much greater now because the debt is much bigger, so when I got my first mortgage my loan multiples were not impacted but many lenders now do factor that in. At least that was my understanding.

My student loans were between 2000-3. They’ll never be paid back. I’m sure back then it was about 20 years or so? A definite number of years anyway, and then it just got longer and longer. I’m not sure I understand why pre 2006 will just continue on and on and yet afterwards have an end date?
(eta am now disabled and cannot work)