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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

In thinking the student loan repayments thresholds are extremely unfair?

88 replies

sunfloweryy · 13/02/2020 13:57

I started uni in 2011 so I’m on repayment plan 1. Colleague in 2012 so plan 2.

I’ve just found out that she only repays 9% of her income over £25K - mine is over £18K! So I effectively pay £700 a year more.

AIBU in thinking that’s hugely unfair? I know her loans are bigger but we aren’t in a very well paid industry anyway so it’s unlikeky either of us will ever earn enough to pay them off.

OP posts:
dootball · 13/02/2020 15:27

You do need to remember that over time your wage will rise, which will mean in the future you start to make a greater and greater dent into it.

CycleWoman · 13/02/2020 15:27

Every time I get a statement I’ve barely paid off anything but interest

Mine was the same and I graduated 15 years ago and borrowed ££££. But after a while it gets better, same with any loan (wait til you get a mortgage!).

Aureum · 13/02/2020 15:29

I got my loan in 1998. I’m fairly certain it doesn’t get written off till I’m 65? Now that’s unfair when others get theirs written off in their mid 40s!

Chage · 13/02/2020 15:30

Yours will be written off after 25 years, hers won't be written off for 30 years...

Not true @Dinosauraddict

MarchDaffs · 13/02/2020 15:30

I've stopped caring about paying mine back now it's been sold.

Chage · 13/02/2020 15:32

Plan 1 loans are written off when you're 65, not after 25 years!

Chage · 13/02/2020 15:34

"so my current student finance is literally paying my original student finance."

You need to check this @KiddingMyself because you only pay loans back if you hit threshold on taxable income. Student loans are not taxable income and so do not count.

GiveHerHellFromUs · 13/02/2020 15:34

If you bought the same car from different dealerships you'd be paying different prices for the same thing. What's the difference? It's life.

soupforbrains · 13/02/2020 15:36

Essentially on the basis that you and she now have the same job, earn the same ammount but she will pay back less, no it's not 'fair' but neither is life. And you need to just deal with it because it's irrelevant what deal she has, yours it the deal you agreed to when you signed up for it.

Your deal may not be as good as the one the group after you got, but it's better than the one the group before you had. and that group before you? well their deal was both worse than the people after them and the people before them.

There is no good in life to continually compare yourself or your situation to that of others around you. since you're on the older deal you must have at least started studying before she did therefore you've had longer in the workplace to be earning, you could, potentially have moved on fuirther than she has, on the flip side you may have children, while she doesn't, you may have a mortgage while she doesn't, you might have a partner on a high income, she might not have a partner at all. Everything in everyone's lives is different, there's no point bearing a grudge at the world for the discrepancies.

Beau20 · 13/02/2020 15:38

I'm on plan 1 from 2010, and I think plan 2 is far far worse! I have (or did have before interest) a 14k loan. I earn 24k and pay about £50 a month. It's nothing. If I never increase my salary it will take me 144 years to pay mine off, therefore in 15 years mine will be written off. Happy days.

Plan 2 don't have to pay back until £25K BUT have to pay high % back, and having larger loans to begin with, will probably more. Plan 1 definitely have it better off. I'd stop winging, we really don't have it bad at all.

Beau20 · 13/02/2020 15:40

@Chage WRONG! Only loans taken out before 2006 are written off at 65. Anyone on plan 1 who took out their loan 2007 onwards will have it written off after 25 years from the first april you are due to pay it back.

VivaLeBeaver · 13/02/2020 15:42

My 1995 loan is written off this year.

VivaLeBeaver · 13/02/2020 15:43

I think....it definitely says 25 years but now I’m thinking is it 25 years from taking it out or graduating?

daisypond · 13/02/2020 15:44

Probably should have thought about which degree to do at uni before taking out loans which you can't pay back, and gone into an industry where you would be earning enough.
This is an attitude I find completely repugnant and incomprehensible.

SmotsMots · 13/02/2020 15:52

This is an attitude I find completely repugnant and incomprehensible.

That may be, but it doesn't make it untrue though. It's something all students should think about.

daisypond · 13/02/2020 15:58

I would be somewhat ashamed of my children if they thought like that.

Molly2017 · 13/02/2020 16:01

@daisypond I agree. I worked hard to pay off mine and did so before the age of 30. I could have thought fuck it, I’ll pay as little as possible for as long as possible and hope it gets written off eventually, but that’s not my style.

85notout · 13/02/2020 16:02

That's life isn't it? I owe 40k and will never pay it back, a degree is a requirement for my job but I don't earn enough to start paying back the loans.

userxx · 13/02/2020 16:04

I would be somewhat ashamed of my children if they thought like that. Why? Its a valid point isnt it. Surely you go to uni so you can getter a better job paying more money?

daisypond · 13/02/2020 16:09

No. You don’t go to uni to have a better job paying more money, in my opinion. “Better” jobs are ones that benefit society, not enrich an individual.

GoodbyeRosie · 13/02/2020 16:16

This is why ' Student Debt' just makes for a juicy story , and nothing else.

What other debt can you have where you don't have to pay it back if you earn below a certain amount?

Where it is written off after a time period if you haven't paid it?

Where it is so insignificant in the financial world it isn't taken into account when apply for a mortgage?

Student debt/loan should be viewed as graduate tax and nothing else. Every finance expert says leave it and pay the bare minimum, even Martyn Lewis.

I studied from 2007 - 2010 ...probably left with over £20k of debt..I haven't a clue how much I owe on it..I think I pay about £15 a month back at the moment. If I ended up pay £60 -£70 a month back I would know I am doing OK earnings wise!

And hey, this does not make me blase about debt either..it's just this loan is simply not worth worrying about.

People - especially parents of kids going to university - really need to educate themselves about student debt and stop it being a factor in whether a child goes to uni or not.

SmotsMots · 13/02/2020 16:18

And elsewhere in fairy make believe land...

Seriously @userxx is right. The reality is you go to enable you to get a better job.

cologne4711 · 13/02/2020 16:21

Be grateful you live in a country where university education is so widely accessible

Yeah right. Other than the US, nobody else imposes this sort of debt on its young for education.

And the country NEEDS well educated people. Or do you want us to import all our lawyers, accountants, teachers, doctors, nurses, engineers?

cologne4711 · 13/02/2020 16:22

And to the other pp above student debt IS taken into account when you apply for a mortgage as it features in the affordability. 9% of your income is a lot and can mean you can't get a mortgage. And how are you meant to save for the deposit.

Graduates generally pay plenty of tax and will repay their education many times over. It's a pity that successive governments of both red and blue and missed that salient fact.

Berrymuch · 13/02/2020 16:23

@daisypond but a lot of those jobs are better paid than jobs which don't require a degree, assuming you are talking about healthcare professions etc. If it's not a job that benefits society, you'd be silly to do a degree in something which won't make you much money, surely.

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