To not pay off my student loan (current SAHM) even though we can afford it?

[SwissSarah]

I got my degree 10 years ago and have about £10K to pay from my student loan. I never earned enough to pay back any of it pre kids (did low paid community work) and have been a SAHM for 5 years and plan to be for at least the next 5. I anticipate never working full time and probably doing lots of voluntary stuff in the community as that's what I love doing. (DH earns well so no pressure to earn myself)

My DH thinks we should pay it back as I borrowed it. I think that I am contributing massively to my local community and giving back in so many other ways and if I'm not earning enough then I shouldn't worry about not paying it back. What do you think??

Don't pay it. Why would you? You don't need to vis a vis the terms of the loan.

The government agreed to those terms in the full knowledge that many wouldn't pay it back. That's baked into their finance model. You signed up to those terms too, why would you deviate?

It's not actually helpful to think of it as a loan, more of a '(fairly) lucrative job' tax. You don't have that lucrative job, so why take on the pain of the tax?

And I agree with you that there are many wars to contribute to society without working. It's a shame they aren't very valued.

I'm in nearly the exact same situation. I earned enough to pay it back for the first 7 years after graduating, still had about 10k to pay when I became a SAHM. I was worried about the amount of interest that would be added to it if I took say 5-10 years out of work so DH offered to continue to pay it back for me in a lump sum each year. Did this for two years before we realised it was stupid. It's not his loan and that money is more useful to us elsewhere. I'm not being dishonest, I don't earn anything to pay it back with. If I get a job in the future (although I'd likely work part time so I doubt it) I will start paying it back again. It's the terms and conditions of the loan. Yes I feel bad, but I have lots of friends who work in jobs that don't require a degree and they don't earn enough to pay it back, and I worked in a job that needed a degree so I had to take loan to do that job!

Both DH and I have student loans. About 20k of debt.
We have no other loans and no other debt.
I am SAHM as we have disabled boy.
Even DH does get paid commission for 3 months so he can defer SL ... yes his work are great. He submits pay slips without commission and we have 3 very tight months😳....

I don't feel guilty that we both had to pay to get an education so we could get good jobs. I don't feel guilty that I don't work ... if didn't have a disabled child I would. If government provided more help rather than thinking £60 a week carers allowance will cut it !!!
I was earning £30k extra in our household before DS2 was born.
We are missing all that cash so I can look after DS2.

Do you think student loans are bothering me?

665 or a third option, that women should work and earn a decent salary on their own right?

Apologies for that annoying x post. I know that lots of women (and some men) have very good reason for sah. But this expectation of sahm as default is annoying.

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Today 00:27EurusHolmes

Blimey, I wouldn't pay it back. My student debt is £50k and if I ever find myself in the lucky position of having £50k in my bank account, it's not going to be spent on a house/pension."
What would you spend it on then?

Forget about it but stop thinking your community work somehow makes up for it. It's totally unrelated

You know the answer already, you already know what you want to do, everyone is different.
I would pay it back because that's how I feel about those things. I feel one thing that is rly going wrong in England is that people are more and more brought up to think debts are a normal part of life. It's no all their fault of course, all this uni loans business is definitely not helping. It's teaching young people who are barely starting to have financial independence that's it's OK/normal to have massive debts. If you have a 50k student loan then I expect it's easy to see another 10k on a credit card, 20k bank loan etc as being 'normal'.
I completely disagree with that and I just do not want to have loans/debts to my name if I can help it. So I would pay it back for that reason. Morally it would be right for me. But I appreciate people may see it differently.
Fwitw I plan to pay for my children's higher education as much as possible. Let's see what happens by then!

I dont think you have a moral obligation to pay it back either at all.
My dd graduated last year. She owes 48000. She is being charged interest on this at 3%. She pays 9% of her salary over 21000. Actually paying it off seems unlikey as it is accumulating at a greater rate than repayment. When you take out a few years for having babies at some point and probably some part time years. I think the whole system is immoral personally

Yanbu, you don't have to pay it back so why would you? Save the money for your children.

I am paying mine back slowly as I meet the criteria to. I could pay the whole lot off in one go but am I going to? No.

"It's teaching young people who are barely starting to have financial independence that's it's OK/normal to have massive debts."

I agree with this, particularly when it's poor value for money. If you started a family shortly after graduating it doesn't seem like there was much intention to use the degree in a valuable way. If Unis are a business sadly students are going to have to do their own investment appraisals to make sure they can get what they need out of that model

@665TheNeighbourOfTheBeast

or a 4th option, that some (many) marriages are not based on two partners doing the same thing but doing different things and this complementing each other.

It doesn't have to be a competition.

Also, how many years of feminist training did it take to turn 'moral obligation to pay' into 'sexist and morally wrong for your husband to pay'. When we met, I had fair debts which my DH cleared. He took a 2 1/2 year sabbatical while I paid every bill. Sexist?

You'd be insane to pay it back when you don't earn enough to need. Your DH's are irrelevant. I can't believe a lot of the responses here.

I hope none of those advocating paying it back benefitted from earlier, more generous fees regime, i.e. the one where fees were either non-existent or very low ....

You simply can't keep your attitude entrenched in the pre loan days. They don't exist anymore. Getting in huge amounts of debt just because people got free degrees 20 years ago so you should too is immature and shows a lack of understanding of what you're taking on

Don't pay it back! You are not earning! A generation ago we received free education. Your debt will be written off after thirty years! You'd be mad to pay it back!

I mean a student taking on a loan without properly evaluating its financial use is immature.

I also think what happened 20 years ago is itrelevant

The nation really is reliant on people taking on student debt though.
My dd graduated owing £48k. If she earns £30k a year she will pay back £67 a month. Or £800 ish a year. She is accruing more interest than this. If no one did this, where are the teachers, social workers and all the other professionals coming from?
The issue is that a degree is an actual requirement for many jobs and the salaries for these jobs are not enormous. I have told my dd to view it as a tax. I reckon earning £30k a year even of she pays year i year out for 30 years she will only payback £25k.

Myself and DH both paid it off within 5 years of finishing uni both only owed £2000ish. Ive never earnt enough due to having kids young and part time working.

It depends on the terms of the loan when you took it. Some now are paying 3.5%!

It's not about the terms 20 years ago. It's about the terms of the OPs current loan.

Which are very clear that she is not required to payback until she's at a certain income threshold. She'll accumulate interest of course, but apart from that no penalties. She may never pay it back and that okay according to the terms, at a certain point it's written off.

People on the thread seem to be equating it (morally and financially) with an unsecured personal loan. That's ridiculous, it's a differe t beast.

but to be able to pay and conciously choose not to is morally wrong

No tuition fees are morally wrong.

Don't pay it OP, it doesn't mean any more funding for anyone else, it is pointless paying if you don't have to.

Oh and for all of you saying do pay, consider this.

A couple of years ago I was in and out of work and so some payments were taken from my pay, but as I didn't earn over threshold in total I could claim the payments back.