Student loans- feel sick

[Lazy56789]

I did a degree around 15 years ago, and a Masters around 10 years ago.
A repayment is taken out of my salary each month based on my earnings, but when I received a letter from student finance today I saw my balance was 41k! And over 2k in interest was added in the last tax year.

It's terrifying, I'm not in a position to pay off huge amounts, how does anyone do it? The figures are eye-watering, I feel like i must've done something wrong for it to be so high?

Yes they do

You should phone and check if you’re owed any back! I did and because of the year I did my masters, I was owed £196 back - not a lot but I was on mat leave when I called so it did make a difference. I feel your pain though, because the value of my student loan is higher now than it was in 2022! I’m in Scotland though and I know the Ts&Cs etc are much less awful!

This

How can you claim my children won’t learn life skills just because they live at home, without providing any evidence? Are you being difficult intentionally? It’s 2025, and attending university is only necessary in specific circumstances. There’s a local university they could attend by commuting on the train, which might provide an eye-opening experience in observing how unpleasant human behavior can sometimes be—almost as if going to school or other places doesn’t already teach that lesson. Of course, whether they decide to go or not is entirely up to them. Moving away from home isn’t required to learn life skills unless the children are overly pampered or unable to stay home because their parents don’t want them there for whetever reasons, as might be the case for your daughter. There are many ways to gain qualifications, find jobs, and earn money while also developing essential life skills while living at home. My children will have the freedom to travel and live independently at any stage of life, not because I want them out of the house as soon as possible or because I can't stand them anymore. My children will manage everything without accumulating debt.

I just looked at mine out of interest. I owe £25000 on plan 1 and just under £14000 on plan 2. I'm not making any repayments due to working only part time on account of being a single parent of two DC with additional needs. Mine will keep going up as interest is added on, and will never be repaid. I don't really think about it, there's nothing to be done about it. I needed those qualifications to do the job I'm doing, the situation is what it is.

I never planned to only work PT, but I could not have anticipated becoming a single parent, or having two high needs DC. I'm better able to support them in the job I'm in at present (I earn slightly over the FTE for minimum wage, but only work 24 hours within the school day which allows me to do both school runs). I would not be in this job without that debt, and we would be struggling massively without it.

Honestly with fees as they are, I think more kids need to seriously consider if university is really worth it. Too many parents and schools direct kids to university simply as a matter of course, as it it is what is expected. But if you look at it totally rationally, in terms of risk vs reward, does it make sense? If you're likely to get a first from a RG university, then yes. If you're likely bound for a desmond tutu from former poly, almost certainly not.

Chill out, it gets wiped in the end if you haven’t paid it off. And if you lose your job, you won’t have to make any payments until you’ve found one again. And if you end up in a lower paying job, your repayments will be lower. There’s literally no need to stress.

When I went to uni in the 00s, tuition fees were waived for students from poorer backgrounds - I didn’t pay any. Not sure whether that’s still the case.

However, as a millennial, I graduated before the 2008 crash, when the economy was in a much better place than it is now. It wouldn’t be fair to impose a graduate tax on older graduates, because those weren’t the conditions under which they chose to take out a loan and go to university. Some may have chosen not to go to university if they knew that they would pay graduate tax.

Also, my generation went to university at a time when there was still a clear graduate premium in terms of pay. This generation are going in the full knowledge that that premium no longer exists in most cases. I would advise them to think a lot more carefully about whether a degree is actually worth it.

Nope I was asked a question. I replied. Should I not reply to people who ask a question because someone like you gets tetchy? Do you want a medal for quoting me?

Although you bizarrely didn't respond to my follow up to this where I pointed out that tuition fees tripped 6 years after you went to uni and minimum wage barely increased in that time and maybe you should be thankful you went to university with the tuition fees when they were so much lower.
You were quite clearly looking down on us mere mortals who were unable to earn enough to cover triple the tuition fee you paid and come out of uni debt free even with working.
So yer it kind of sounded like you did want a medal

Then try a different broker - they ignored mine and my husband’s when we got our mortgage in 2022. We are with HSBC.

It’ll get written off eventually. I don’t even think about mine. DH has paid his off as he is a high earner but mine will never be paid off. It’s currently sitting at 97k!

Mine on Plan 2 for a four year degree is very nearly £70k outstanding. I mostly ignore it and see the repayments as a tax because I went to uni.

It's only right if they don't earn enough. It is right you are supposed to inform your employer/pay roll which student plan you are on if you had a student loan though so if you have not they will eventually catch up!

The interest on it is criminal, worse than most 90% LTV mortgages! I was fortunate enough to be on plan 1 the year before plan 2 started, fees increased and they started extorting interest so that moderate earners (disproportionately women) could never hope to pay it off in their lifetimes and therefore pay more in interest on it their entire working lives.

It needs a bloody look at! I say this as someone who paid mine off 4 years ago, they need writing off! Especially if the initial capital borrowed has been paid back excluding interest.

I had to look up Desmond Tutu, never heard of that phrase before, I like it!

(Obvs have heard of the man himself before anyone queries whether I got any value from my university education )

Because I haven't seen those! Doesn't take a genius to figure that out! Tuition fees did go up but so too did wages. When earning about 4 quid an hour compared to 10 quid an hour then you earn more to pay more. Looking down on you because I come from a poor background and decided to work and not take out a loan? Not at all. Others were giving suggestions and so was I. I think you are pissed that you've only just realised there was a way to finish uni debt free and you are annoyed that someone did it and you didn't.

I could be wrong, but I don’t think anyone would suggest wiping current debt and replacing with a graduate tax. That suggestion is a possibility put forward for future students.

Its the biggest scam in the world.

My dh’s get waived when he’s 65 🙄

If you look back at the post which was a reply to one of your posts I showed that between 2006 and 2012 the tuition fees tripled. Minimum wage went up 50 something pence
I worked when I was at uni as I previously stated. You have achieved to get through uni debt due to lower tuition fees and working. As I stated in my previous post that would be basically impossible just 6 years later. I earned £7.5k working at least 18.5 hours a week that wouldn't even cover the tuition, I also had to pay board to my mom, travel to work and uni and I also needed to buy food. There was no way of working full time or I wouldn't have physically been able to attend university because I would be at work.
I was telling you it may have been possible to achieve debt free uni through working in 2006 but nearly impossible 2012 onwards.
I am not pissed I didn't manage to do what you did, I accepted the fact I went to uni at a different time when student loans were different.
But your argument about it being easy to get through uni debt free sounds like when people managed to buy a 4 bed house in London on a postman's wage in 1980 and not understanding why a lawyer and a doctor in a joint household income are now struggling to afford the house next door. Times change, things that were manageable before are no longer manageable now due to massive increases. I can also say I'm incredibly lucky with managing to purchase a house when I did, low interest rates at the time. I couldn't afford to buy my own house now if I was starting again. It's about recognising it's not just lazy people who couldn't be arsed to work as hard as you. Some are working just as hard but still can't achieve the same outcome

They factor it into your affordability

Because they were sold to naive 17 year olds as "not real" - the consequences such as interest rate rises and mortgage application affects were either not explained properly to these naive 17 year olds, or downright lied about.

Also, explain to me how creating a job market that requires a degree to flip a burger then attach a cost so prohibitive to degrees that 99% of 17 year olds only option is to take these loans out isnt forcing debt

It was suggested by people earlier in the thread, including @UpDothat older graduates who went for free should pay the graduate tax because it’s ‘fairer’. I don’t agree.

You pay it back after your salary hits £26k. If you do not expect your salary to hit that having done a degree I genuinely don’t understand why you would do it.

As it goes, we are going to pay for ours so they don’t have any debt (after school fees it will be a joy) but if they say to me they are doing something that doesn’t lead towards a career I will be asking them if they would be doing that if they were paying for it themselves.