It's daft to pay off student loan

[Home77]

with inheritance when you are SAHM? friend says they did this...can't help thinking it is a shame as they could do with the money. they are in their 40s and surely student loans get wiped off after a certain number of years.

Does anyone know if you studied between 1994 and 1999 is this 'old style' or 'new style' and when written off? Confused. Thanks.

But if you are able (no other borrowings etc.) to pay the 'tax' upfront, therefore avoid extortionate interest fees, why wouldn't you.

Because life changes. You might find yourself suddenly unable to work, or find that you want or need a lower-paying job, or a cash sum for something else. You might be financially better off paying higher interest on student loans but having a bigger deposit to put towards a mortgage. Etc etc. Cash in the bank and the ability to not service a 'debt' if your circumstances change is a very valuable thing to have.

OP. You haven't answered my question?

And yes, I got my education 'for free' (paid for by taxpayers, actually). I had tuition fees paid, a maintenance grant (low income family) but housing benefit and unemployment benefit had been phased out by then . Only around 10% of the population went to university though. It seems to me we were a rather featherbedded elite, paid for by a lot of people who didn't have the same opportunities.

I'm not happy about enormous VC salaries and benefits, or universities raising massive finance to build ever-larger and posher housing blocks. It would be nice to be confident that the student finance was going to pay for education. And business should pick up more of the bill too.

Very odd thing to do.

It's like paying tax on money you haven't earned.

@fortybingowings
The OP does not need to.
The rest of us have done so for her.

"if people like you intend to take the tuition but not pay for it?"

I didn't intend not to pay for it, when I took it. I intended to have the profession and pay it back. Sorry you don't understand the situation.

I don't have a solution for todays finding problems, no. My student loans are not much. I had a grant, in those days we got these if parents on a low income. That seemed a good plan. With a small top up loan. I also had a part time job working for the university as well, we could do up to 15 hrs a week. It helped.

Fortybingowings-

Thinking about it, would it not be discriminatory, anyway if people with health problems who at the time possibly might not be able to pay much back (say due to being able to only work part time) ?

As this is what you seem to be inferring form your question, 'people like you'. Nice.

Totally agree OP.

1990-97 written off at 50 or after 25 years from final loan agreement.

Check MSE blog all on there

So, if you don't pay it back, it's ok that the rest of us paid for your degree then? If everyone thought this way, the country would be debt. Oh, wait, we are, because they do.

Another friend, I studied with at the time, is severely dyslexic, she had paid some but not all back. She had a part time job also through her degree for the university so think that was good pay back, also. They benefitted from her support.

I know we were lucky to get grants. And we paid no fees either. The loans were small. It would have been more stressful the loans being higher. I feel for those today having those huge amounts to pay.

So, if you don't pay it back, it's ok that the rest of us paid for your degree then?

That's really not how it works.

If everyone thought this way, the country would be debt. Oh, wait, we are, because they do.

Well it doesn't help the Government in the instance because the money is going to a private company who brought the debts years ago.

So people should pay back the grants and fees then?

Argh, I don't know. I see, things are unfair compared to how they used to be. and need to change.

Maybe the baby boomers should pay back their fees and grants too out of their pensions!

"1990-97 written off at 50 or after 25 years from final loan agreement.

Check MSE blog all on there"

Is that right? If so not ling to go then. I was confused as after 98 is the other type...and if finishing in 1999 some might be that. It's really confusing.

If you are unfit to work they all get written off, the logic bring you will never be working therefore no income to repay it.

The government set out the rules on student loans and the people that went to university and took out the student loans are just following them. Why would you do anything different.

It says you go by your start year, and the date you signed your final agreement to start counting your 25 years.

It would be far better to pay off some of the mortgage, and therefore reduce outgoings (or get a mortgage)

It makes no sense to pay of a student loan if you are not earning the money that you are projected to earn in order to pay it off

It might be worth paying it off for the hell of it if you have paid for everything else, but even if you suddenly get a high-flying job with massive pay rise, it will then be paid off accordingly and probably reasonably quickly.

Ok, thanks. So that would be 1999. But that means would be the other type...also was in Scotland not sure if that makes any difference.

Home77. Whatever your first year was the rest will be the same, DS went in 2011 and it was the same amount all the way through even though it went up from £3k to £9k in 2012

It's a tax, there are so many other things that I would do with the money first.

Since I left the UK I stopped paying mine back

My student debt is over £100k. I earn a good salary over the national average and love my career that wouldn't have been possible without the student debt.

I very much doubt I will never earn enough to pay the interest of my debt off let alone the initial amount. I see it as a tax, extra money taken from my pay before I even see it. This tax allows me to do my job and therefore earn what I earn. If I came into enough money to pay it off would I? Absolutely not.

What all this disagreement highlights is that the current system of student loans does not work.

Nothing, NOTHING could make me repay my student loans on a voluntary basis. I am currently in at £67k after doing a BA, an MA and now (thanks to funding for 2nd degrees in science) I am doing a first year of a Bsc. It will be £73k by September and then I am hoping to a PhD and then teacher training and so I will get it up to a round £115k and that makes me happy.

I am never going to be able to work full time so may well never even make a single repayment. But that does not mean my education has been wasted. I volunteer in local schools teaching/workshopping an important subject that is often the last on the school budget or that is is talent that teachers maybe lack. I also run school book clubs and am a governor in another school. All this despite me leaving school at 14 with no qualifications.

So no, I do not feel bad for not repaying the debt. Education is a right, and it should be free for everybody at all times, at all levels.

Education is a right, it should be free..
How are you proposing to fund that?