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AIBU?

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Original poster

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

340 replies

SwissSarah · 27/01/2017 18:54

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??

OP posts:
JassyRadlett · 28/01/2017 14:12

Barinatxe, it bears as many similarities to a tax (income contingent payements, liability does not carry on after death) as it does to a loan in the traditional sense of the term.

Treating it as purely lying in either camp is nonsensical.

SpangledBoots · 28/01/2017 14:20

Pay back the loan.

mycavitiesareempty · 28/01/2017 14:36

Jassyradlett three cheers for you. It is effectively a graduate tax so you have hit the nail on the head.

JustSpeakSense · 28/01/2017 14:47

Pay your debts.

Megatherium · 28/01/2017 15:13

Whatever happened to doing the right thing?!!!!!

Katy07, do you propose to do "the right thing" by paying back for the cost of your own and your children's primary and secondary education? How about the costs of NHS care? You have no legal duty to pay those, OP has no legal duty to pay back the student loan.

Megatherium · 28/01/2017 15:15

Personally, if I could afford to pay back the money (as the OP can)
You can afford to pay back your loan, but choose not to? Yes, YABU.

Do read the OP. She can't afford to. Her husband possibly could, but he has no liability for it. His money is not hers.

Megatherium · 28/01/2017 15:18

Mummyoflittledragon, sorry, there was a typo in my post about student accommodation. I didn't mean to refer to my accommodation, but student accommodation in general.

Yes, there are some developers building luxury student accommodation. That type of accommodation is emphatically not aimed at students who are dependent on loans, but those from wealthy backgrounds. You can't take out a higher student loan just because you fancy living in a swanky flat. Most student accommodation is at best bog standard and basic.

Whisky2014 · 28/01/2017 15:23

jassy yeh we would have bigger problems. No one paying tax to pay lazy peoples education that amounts to fuck all then squeeze out a kid.

Pay your fucking debt.

Whisky2014 · 28/01/2017 15:23

Too many people in life are freeloaders.

29redshoes · 28/01/2017 15:39

mega the OP's DH has offered to give her the money, so yes she could afford to pay it back. She's making the choice not to use it on her loan. I do accept that legally she's not liable (and actually I'm on the fence about whether she has any moral obligation too, although if it were me I'd pay it back).

Surely the idea of family money is quite important to a functional SAHP/WOHP relationship? By your logic the OP also can't afford food, housing, clothing, etc etc...!

Whisky2014 · 28/01/2017 15:42

How ironic of Mega to say "Do read the OP. She can't afford to" when the title of the OP states they can afford it!

FellOutOfBed2wice · 28/01/2017 16:00

I must be morally bankrupt judging by some of these posts as I would not be paying it back. Of I'd been born five years earlier I would have gone to uni for free, so can't feel too terrible about the fact I might never pay the whole thing off

Whisky2014 · 28/01/2017 16:02

Im sure there was a reason it wasnt free anymore..

Katy07 · 28/01/2017 16:54

Katy07, do you propose to do "the right thing" by paying back for the cost of your own and your children's primary and secondary education? How about the costs of NHS care? You have no legal duty to pay those, OP has no legal duty to pay back the student loan.
I pay tax & NI that covers primary & secondary education and the NHS for everyone. Not a very good argument you've chosen. (And actually you are legally obliged to pay tax & NI if you fall within the relevant limits) I've paid for my degrees myself. Besides, just because you are fulfilling legal requirements (by not being obliged to do something) doesn't mean that it's the right thing to (not) do.

Astoria7974 · 28/01/2017 18:01

Student loans in the UK aren't really designed to be repaid in full. They are effectively an extra tax for thos earning above a certain amount and so cheap you'd be silly to repay it. The 10k is better off as an emergency cash fund.

cardibach · 28/01/2017 18:02

Katy And actually you are legally obliged to pay tax & NI if you fall within the relevant limits - as you are student loans. The key point being 'within the relevant limits', which the OP isn't. Should she therefore be paying hypothetical tax and NI out of her husband's salary because he earns more than she does?

Caboodle · 28/01/2017 20:24

Funnily enough no-one has responded to my point regarding rushing to pay off mortgages sooner...seeing as meeting the terms of a loan repayment isn't good enough it seems and, apparently, we should rely on the incomes of others to pay debt before it is due. I assume the posters saying this apply this logic to all their debts?

ShastaBeast · 28/01/2017 21:06

Surely she's a scrounger on her husband if he is expected to pick up the tab for her student loan - a loan likely taken out before they met. I aim to pay mine when due but wouldn't expect my husband to pick up the cost because I've had kids earlier than expected.

I'd love to know what the righteous on this thread did with their loans. I came from a single parent family with very little help from my family. I'm aware there were an awful lot of students in much better positions. It's also more likely that working class kids will earn less as graduates than their middle class counter parts - less well connected and lower ambitions. Those who do go onto earn high salaries are working against the odds, you were lucky. Those from deprived backgrounds are more likely to become disabled too- chronic pain in my case. I may have much more than the remaining student loan in the bank but I'd rather have the security of keeping it than paying off a debt which is not growing (taking into account inflation) and isn't required to be paid off. I suspect the OP isn't rolling in it. In our case we have a lot of money in the bank but live in a flat because we can't afford a house - something many consider a failing on our part even if we count our blessings. I'd love to have the security to know that unnecessarily paying off £10k plus wouldn't come back to bite us.

FineAsWeAre · 28/01/2017 21:20

I wouldn't. You're not earning so you don't have to. It's not affecting anyone if you don't and I'm sure that money could be well spent on other things. I'm at uni at the moment but it's unlikely that I'll ever earn enough to pay my loan off. I will be working but it just happens that the sector I'm in is notoriously underpaid.

JassyRadlett · 29/01/2017 01:09

jassy yeh we would have bigger problems. No one paying tax to pay lazy peoples education that amounts to fuck all then squeeze out a kid.

I was more thinking about the lack of doctors, teachers, lawyers, nurses, accountants, scientists, mathematicians, economists, paramedics, social workers, and the impact on our society if all those with degrees decided not to work in their fields.

But don't let logic get in the way of a good old fashioned narrow ignorant rant. Wouldn't want to deprive you.

Megatherium · 29/01/2017 01:10

How ironic of Mega to say "Do read the OP. She can't afford to" when the title of the OP states they can afford it!

The operative word there is "they". OP herself cannot afford it; her husband apparently can. His money is not hers. If she could afford it on the basis of her own means, the strong likelihood is that she would have reached the threshold for starting repayments and there would be no debate because she would have no choice.

Megatherium · 29/01/2017 01:13

I pay tax & NI that covers primary & secondary education and the NHS for everyone. Not a very good argument you've chosen.

It's a perfectly good argument. You are expecting OP to repay the loan out of income that is already taxed. If you felt there was a moral duty to repay the costs of primary and secondary education, you would be paying that also out of taxed income, i.e over and above taxes.

RhodaBull · 29/01/2017 09:41

What is the maximum student loan you can take?

Because - and I must be wrong here - if you take a degree in, say, Equestrian Studies where a future job would be unlikely to pay c£21K what's to stop you living high on the hog for three years on the assumption that the loan will never be called in? Someone doing Medicine would know that they will be paying off the loan, but for some very vocational subjects you might gamble that the chance of having to pay back is slim.

Natsku · 29/01/2017 10:00

what's to stop you living high on the hog for three year

Don't know about you but I certainly wasn't living high on the hog on my student loan - it barely covered rent and bills, let alone food and entertainment!

iamavodkadrinker · 29/01/2017 10:34

No way should you pay it back. It's a disgrace that you're in debt anyway.

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