In thinking the student loan repayments thresholds are extremely unfair?

[sunfloweryy]

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.

@GrumpyHoonMain my degree was worth it because it was a requirement of the job. Whether that was some arbitrary measure or not I don’t know, I feel I could have picked up the skills without a degree but such is life.

I definitely don’t resent the fact that I have to pay it back, just the fact that she and I do the same job for the same pay yet she takes home more than me by a significant amount per year. I will still end up paying more, even if she pays for longer.

@Berrymuch plenty of essential jobs require a degree but average pay. Teachers, nurses, social workers.

@Berrymuch I've been job hunting for a while and have seen a handful of jobs which require a degree but pay about 15-18k a year pro rata.

People go to university for a variety of reasons.

If you sit and get into a cycle of regret and envy about when you went to uni where does it end?

I had one of the original student loans... paid off fully with quite a sizeable chunk to pay each month. Now I'm doing a degree with a current model loan (Healthcare profession hence being allowed funding for a second degree) - there's pluses and minuses to both sets of circumstances.

Hell way back in the dark days of yore people got student grants and free tuition - THAT'S unfair compared to now really!

@sunfloweryy they might not pay above the average national wage due to high wages hiking it up, but they certainly pay more than most entry level jobs which do not require a degree; aside from a few trades. @85notout that's more because so many people have degrees that they can ask for them and exclude those without (lazy shortlisting) rather than actually requiring a degree.

Could anyone help me with advice on my loan please?

I took out a plan 1 loan in 2005 for around £4k.

I have never earned enough to kick in repayments since but from June this year will do so exactly 15 years from taking it out.

Payroll will obviously sort the automatic deductions, but can anyone tell me how much debt my original 4k is likely to be stood at now?

Also is there any sort of calculators I could use to estimate how long it will take me to clear it so I can keep an eye and set myself a reminder to cancel paying it once it is cleared.

I have heard of lots of people who have continued paying SLC for years after their loans were repaid and then struggled getting the money back.

Thank you

Have you never had a statement from the SLC? They're supposed to send them out annually.

After 25 years your loan will be written off regardless of the amount outstanding.

This isn't true. Those on plan 1, who have a lower threshold for paying, won't get their loan paid off until they are 65. I'm a teacher so will never pay mine off. DSis two years younger than me, is also a teacher, is on plan 2 so has a higher threshold and hers will be wiped when she is 47.

It just is unfair.

Appreciate that but we both earn £30k and it’s 9% for us both so if we never pay it back it hardly matters if the debt is £30k or a million!
If you earn £30k now, the chances are 5hst you'll be on more in 10 years time in which case you will both be repaying it and she'll pay more all together.

Look at the longer picture before moaning that things are unfair now. In all likelihood, she'll end up paying more than you.

I took out mine in 2003, its fully repaid now but the interest was based on the inflation rate I think. As it was very low or negative for several years in between the interest will vary from between 0% to 3% per year. So a max of 15 years x 3% so perhaps around £5-£5.5k?

This isn't true. Those on plan 1, who have a lower threshold for paying, won't get their loan paid off until they are 65

@PerfectParrot - It is true for the OP because she took out her loan in 2011. It is only those who took out their loan in 2005/06 or earlier who will be paying until they are 65.

@marchdaffs I have never ever received a statement from slc in 15 years.

Have they got your correct address juan? You have to update them. Mine went to my parents house for years until I got round to changing it.

I have had correspondence from them since regarding another uni I attended after (the OU) as I was given a £200 grant to buy a computer. But no further loans taken for any of my degrees after. I lived at the address I took that from for many years but never received any statements about the original loan, no.

I will give them a call to sort this I think before my new job starts so I know where I stand.

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.
I wasn’t really meaning healthcare profession degrees, more degrees in humanities - classic subjects like English, history, etc. I know lots with these types of degrees, but they don’t earn much, even if they’ve got top degrees from top universities. They may work in the charity sector, or museums, or theatres, just off the top of my head.

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

That is not true. The repayments are taken into account. Mortgages are based on take-home pay only, after all payments are taken out, including student fees. That can make a huge difference in the ability to take out a mortgage given the horrendous house prices nowadays.

There is nothing fair about life in Britain, nothing at all. Disgusting hierarchical class-based oligarchic tinpot dump now.

It's not actually even true pre 2005/ 2006 either. About debt being written off.

Before 2005 2006 for some it was at 65 years old and for some it was also after 25 years. It's actually year dependent as they swapped and changed the rules so much.

I'm before 2005 and mine is written off in a couple of years time, so after 25 years.
It's worth checking which applies to you.

So people on this thread are getting it both right and wrong, so everyone actually needs to check as it's year to year in some periods, as goalposts were continually moved.

I am super special in that I have two Plan 1 loans under different terms - my loans from 2001-4 will be written off when I turn 65, am permanently disabled or die. (so hopefully in 2048)

My loan from 2007 - higher amount as tuition fees were higher plus I took a full maintenace loan as I had a mortgage to pay... gets cancelled after 25 years, in 2032.

I will never pay it all back, its a bit annoying the SLC won't allow you to pay off one loan before the other even though they are on different terms.

However I long got over the 'its not fairness' of it all. Timing is everything. Virtually every financial decision would have turned out differently if you made it a year or two before or after.

There is nothing fair about life in Britain, nothing at all. Disgusting hierarchical class-based oligarchic tinpot dump now.

There are plenty of other countries to pick from if you have that much of an issue with Britain.

Bit the bullet and rang them. Very good call centre and open until 8pm.

My original loan of £3800 in 2005 is now £4975 after 15 yrs so not tooooo bad. Should be paid off in just under 5 years from now.

There are plenty of other countries to pick from if you have that much of an issue with Britain.

There aren't actually. Look at my username, remember that little spat we all had? It's locked off migration to the EU to everyone who wasn't born in well-off families and has security blankets. I had to return from the EU because of it. There were never many other options.

They shouldn’t be written off and the repayments should be higher. Too many never seem to pay them back as don’t work or remain under the threshold. It should be much stricter so people ensure they really need the degree and don’t waste money.

@daisypond the only grad jobs in museums are things like conservationship (£20k plus), libraries if you have an accredited degree with a view to become a chartered librarian (£20k plus); the rest require GCSES, but again, where so many people have degrees it can be an informal way of shortlisting, or just being jobs people fall into as not sure what to do.

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

Most of those jobs (apart from nurses and teaches) are paid enough that paying off the student loan isn't too difficult so the fees won't put people off.

I graduated in 2008 and am a lawyer so paid off my student loan within about 5 years (and this is despite being on fairly meagre earnings for a couple of years during my training contract).