To think people are unaware on how much the government has SHAFTED students with loans

[SucksToBeMee]

This brings me so much anger to this day, and I took out my student loans from back in 2012 when 9k tuition fees were introduced.

I did a 3 year undergrad and I left with a 50k debt. I can live with my 50k student loan. Fine, the government wants to pass the cost on to students (not that I agree you they should be doing that) but fine.

But the interest rates are so unbelievably outrageous I have no NO CLUE how they've gotten away with completely shafting the whole (especially poorer) student population.

Do people realise the interest rate on student loans is 3% + RPI? It's currently at 6.6%

6.6% interest this year on a 50k loan. That's at least £3300.

I earn a £45k salary and I still won't cover the interest this year. I have been earning a fairly decent salary since graduating and I have never covered the yearly interest.

My outstanding debt goes up and up each year even though I'm paying them thousands in the year. I now owe them £55k after giving them around £6k since I graduated.

They will carry on taking 9% of my salary over 25k and 9% of all my bonuses for the next 30 years.

Anyone who took out max loan (aka from a poorer background) and ended up breaking the barrier through to a better life is fucked over the most.
The wealthier families get away mostly scott free.

I think it's absolutely outrageous, and I'm not sure people realise how fucked over we're actually getting with interest rates. I have a debt that I can never even start to pay off. I will pay them probably double what I initially owed them over the next 30 years.

Honourable mention: they also charge max interest rates on your outstanding loan for the duration of your study.

By paying up front, you are assuming the DC is going to earn very highly. Ordinary incomes, or if DC work part time, don’t really pay much back. It only gets to be quite a lot for high earners. If parents save the money via a decent savings vehicle, that can be worth a lot over the years. Most young people just take out the loan and forget about it! The majority don’t pay it off.

There probably should be fewer degree courses and fewer universities. Those that were colleges of HE or teacher training should be offering HND or apprentice qualifications. The brightest and the best should be going to university and that doesn’t matter whether it’s for Engineering or History.

LakieLady I agree that it’s difficult for Nursing/Midwifery students, but it’s complete bollocks to say they can’t work through their degree. Most have no choice but to find work! My brother worked in a pub that was sympathetic to his placement shifts, but a good way of doing it is as a HCA on bank work - they’re used to nursing students and are happy to work around the needs of the placement.

YANBU. It is outrageous.

Also, you hear a lot of this "It's not like a normal loan. They won't ask about it when you apply for a mortgage."
Well, true, it isn't like normal debt for a number of reasons. But when I last applied for a mortgage they wanted to know what my take home pay was, and what my outgoings were. So if student loan isn't going to affect the application, does that mean they are going to add loan payments back on to your take home pay so they can pretend they were never taken off, so they can lend you more??? Err, no.

MrsBethel Yes, you are technically right, your Take home pay will be slightly less if you’re paying off a student loan. But usually such a small amount it won’t really affect affordability of the mortgage.

This is why i didn't take the loan out.

I worked 3 jobs during my whole degree, and had saved up my first years fee's and accomodation before i went through working from age 16.

I think a lot of people just see it as free money and take it when they are 18 years old without understanding the fact you will be paying it off for most of your adult life.

YANBU

By paying up front, you are assuming the DC is going to earn very highly. Not at all. We paid up front because we could do so, and it would still have been cheaper for us to extend the mortgage than for ds to pay the interest on the student loans.

I would not touch one of the new student loans with a barge pole, so why would I expect my child to do so?

So, reports indicate that labour manifesto will be to abolish tuition fees - will be interesting to see what the position of the other parties is. (assuming there is an election - many other threads there!)

I really can't see how that would work. Where would the money come from? Universities are not in a position to take any more financial hits.

We may or may not find out! - jc has categorically said it today, so if there's an election all may become clear. His speech didn't mention the 2012-2019 cohort though - whether there will be anything in the manifesto about them, who knows? By now they are quite a chunk of voters.

We may or may not find out! - jc has categorically said it today, so if there's an election all may become clear. His speech didn't mention the 2012-2019 cohort though - whether there will be anything in the manifesto about them, who knows? By now they are quite a chunk of voters

I just can't see it happening without the mass reduction of both universities and students ...something which goes against what labour stands for as it certainly won't be the privileged and elite that suffer. It'll be like Nick Clegg all over again.

Student loan repayments were definitely taken into account when we applied for our mortgage.

Yep, mythical it was for us too.

But only in terms of “you have £X less take home pay per month”; not “you have £50K debt”

It really does not matter one teeny tiny little jot how it was described Dyrne. The point is that having a student loan impacts your ability to get a mortgage, because you are having to pay out each week. So it is straightforward sophistry to claim that it has no impact and no relevance to the ability to buy a house.

Assuming, of course, one is in the mumsnet-land of having jobs that pay over 25k.

...and therefore can afford to even dream of owning houses nowadays anyway. I must finish my sentences better, sorry .

I have literally never heard of anyone being denied a mortgage because they’re paying £50-100 a month towards a student loan. Happy to be proved wrong though...

But you have heard of people being denied mortgages, or being told that they can only have £100 000 worth of mortgage when houses cost way way more than that, because they don't have the right take-home pay, yes? Which happens to include a deduction for student loans.

It’s not going to be the student loan which tips the person over the edge in that equation, ImGoingToBangYourHeadsTogether ...

When we had grants for uni students, we also had a government committed to lifelong learning. The OU was set up so that people were able to access tertiary education at an affordable rate in a way which worked with their jobs and lifestyle. Polytechnics and FE colleges r,an evening classes; if you were unemployed you could attend at a much lower rate, and if you had a job you paid.

There were fewer Unis, fewer students but much more learning opportunities.

it was under Blair that the OU was forced to raise its fees to a rate equal to b&m Unis so that school-leavers weren''t tempted over there. I can no longer afford OU fees, my local FE college offers classes at such a basic level I could probably be teaching them myself, and I can't afford the classes offered by the nearest Uni.

My brain is rotting as we speak!

Far from needing 50% of the population having a degree, we need life long learning available to any who want it at an affordable price. We need our older people (inc me) to be able to keep their brains working, we need our young people who think they're not up to Uni to keep their brains going, and everyone in between.

Of my DD's graduate cohort, 2018, no-one seems to be bothered by their student loans. They are all types of graduates, earning all levels of salary. Some were paid off by parents or grandparents, some are yet to reach the level of payment, some are paying the fixed amount per month. They are all just getting on in life, but happy that they all have graduate jobs. Some are in IT, some in Banking, some in Life Sciences, some are in the Civil Service or Teaching, one is teaching drama to disabled kids, terrible salary, but I think we can accept it as a benefit to society, all are paying taxes. Let's celebrate that they all have jobs, are paying taxes, and benefiting society. They had a fantastic time at Uni, and now have worthwhile occupations. Hurrah for them.

I think is all comes out in the wash. The Arts students subsidised the STEM students to study, having now started work, we could say the STEM students now subsidise the Arts, you could say that is a perfect solution to societies needs.

It’s not going to be the student loan which tips the person over the edge in that equation, ImGoingToBangYourHeadsTogether

We all know how high house prices are, but this statement is factually incorrect. Take home pay is the deciding factor, and that can be reduced by student loans by a considerable margin. In our case, the reduction caused by the student loan was greater than the value of the repayments. We were in the fortunate position of being able to pay off the last of the student loan, and suddenly our mortgage possibilities widened considerably.

People in this country need to wake up, stop listening to the clever linguistic twisted arguments, or twisted statistics, and look at cold hard practical and real consequences and reality, in many areas of life in Britain.

There were fewer Unis, fewer students but much more learning opportunities.

And those opportunities were predominantly taken up by those in the top echelons of society....

If you were poor you left school at 15 and did an apprenticeship if you were lucky, or an unskilled factory job if you weren't.

Are you on a different repayment plan Then? Because I don’t see 9% as a ‘considerable margin’ capable of being the deciding factor of getting a mortgage or not - in the majority of cases. I mean, some people have gym memberships or phone contracts worth more than the student loan!

10% is a considerable margin in my (finances)book when looking at houses. Would you refuse a 10% annual pay increase?

But as I said, the amount the available mortgage was reduced by was more than the payment value. We were surprised at the time, but the bankers said that that was perfectly normal practice, because excuses I can't now remember. It made it worth us paying off the remainder of the loan, taking that amount off our deposit to have a higher monthly repayment potential. Crazy but true.

Is it not better to have one of the newer loans that the old ones? I’ve got a pre 2012 one and I pay back on my income over £18K, but my Dsis has the current one and she only pays over £25K. So we earn the same but she takes home more!