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?

I know a couple of people who dropped out of uni before completing and have never had to pay a penny back/never been contacted about paying it back? Is this right?

The Student Loans "Company" is owned by the Government already. Before the government paid all the costs of uni, now it pays it upfront and recovers it over time. It is always a net positive for the Government.

Can you get a loan for a second degree? I would love to do another degree but I thought you couldn’t get a loan. I am older than you and got a grant to study first time around.

No that isn't right and the tax man will catch up with them unless they don't earners enough to repay it. They are supposed to inform their employer which student loan plan they are on so the deductions are made properly.

For certain degrees for professions they need people for (such as some healthcare or social care work). There is a list online

I cannot say that is what happened in their situation as I don't know them, but in principle it is correct. Until the minimum earnings threshold has been reached, no payments are made. When earnings drop, payments stop. If I drop out of my course, it is highly unlikely I will ever earn enough in my current job to begin repayments and interest will be added to the loan for the rest of my life, but that won't affect me.

What’s the alternative? That the tax payer should fund waste of time degrees, most of which don’t lead to a job? Going to uni is a choice, and one that people should think a lot harder about imo. They know that they are taking in in a massive debt.

You might be in the age bracket where it gets written off after a certain number of years. Mine took 20 years to repay. It’s compound interest and the base rate is no longer hovering just above zero, so the interest will be much higher than it was. Look at your repayment terms and calculate whether you are likely to be better off trying to pay it back early, or just treating it as a graduate tax.

Only for certain degrees in areas of shortage - eg Occupational Therapy / Podiatry / Social Work. Some of these also have a non repayable bursary.

No, I dropped out and paid back my student loans in full.

Nope I dropped out after 1 year and I pay over £100 back a month and I currently owe over £13k.
I actually said in my previous post that my interest rate was 2% than my mortgage, just checked my statement it is at 6.6%. so actually more than 4% more than my mortgage. Once I'm finished paying my mortgage I might genuinely remortgage for my student loans if I can pay it off in onez depends on the maths at the time. At the moment I could get sub 4% mortgage rate. Plan 2 and they increase the interest rate as your wage increases upto RPI+3% so as you start earning more they charge you more interest until you hit 7.3% interest in total when you get to just over £50k. Making it harder to pay back the loan as your wage goes up. Criminal really

That's what I get - £5K bursary towards anything I like. It is my intention to use mine to fund loan repayments, but technically I can spend it as I see fit.

I think it gets written off at age 65. Unless they change the rules.

Except you don’t have to repay it. Most won’t and it’ll be wiped in 15 years.

I’d imagine a reasonable number of the posters saying it are in the same position.

You can get a postgraduate loan

I was also confused by the ambiguous ‘they’

More like they wanted us all at uni. Poor us.

I thought it was written off after 25 years. Where did you read age 65?!

mine is creating more interest than I can pay off. I’ll never pay it back. It’s going on for double the original amount I owed I think! Impossible.

And you can also get a doctoral loan, so three lots of loans.

I owe them about 121k if that makes you feel better? Just ignore it and carry on, there’s zero point in being stressed about it.

Depends if you are plan 1, 2 or 3. They have different thresholds. You can look up the year you enrolled or graduated or something and it will tell you

Plan 1 after Sept 2006 gets written off after 25 years, before that it is 65 for plan 1

Depends which year OP went to uni. Anyone who went before 2006 it doesn’t get written off until age 65, but those who went from 200) and are on plan 1 it gets wiped after 25 years.