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?

Plan 2 seems to change rate constantly also. One month this year I paid 8% in interest 🤢

As an 18 year old with fuck all in the way of collateral, it WAS the lowest rate you could get. If you could have got a commercial unsecured loan at a lower rate, with no requirement to pay in full if your salary wasn’t high enough, everyone would be doing so.

It's just a tax really. I didn't start making proper inroads into it until I was on probably £70k then managed to clear it in about 5 years. Eventually it gets wiped.

Nope, you still have to pay the fees! I dropped out early and had to pay back my loan and my maintenace loan overpayment (I left mid-term)

You seriously don't need to worry. A student loan is the cheapest loan you'll ever have. Honestly, don't login again, just keep to your payments.

DD's is currently over £100k (degree and master's). She left uni six years ago. She is on a low wage - around £21k - and has not been able to pay anything off it, so the interest just keeps getting added with nothing to offset it. Its terrifying.

Here you go:

www.gov.uk/repaying-your-student-loan/when-your-student-loan-gets-written-off-or-cancelled

But sometimes that can pay off if it leads to a good job. People need to research degree courses much more extensively and have a good idea that it can secure employment. For this reason, university degrees can be a good thing. Unfortunately for some courses, the pay off just is not there.

This is so appalling. The loans should at least be interest free.

Yes. And also on the tax payer. Who are providing the money for the student loan in the first place. Around 45% of the value of student loans being taken out in England will actually be covered by the taxpayer.

It’s all a con to control and make people money of course. Loads of YA shouldn’t even go to university. Nevermind saddle themselves with debt for ever for it.

‘Students who acquire large debts putting themselves through school are unlikely to think about changing society. When you trap people in a system of debt . they can’t afford the time to think. Tuition fee increases are a “disciplinary technique,” and, by the time students graduate, they are not only loaded with debt, but have also internalized the “disciplinarian culture.” This makes them efficient components of the consumer economy.’
Noam Chomsky

Now that I agree with… or at least very low interest.

@FullOfMomsense my son did the same - what I feel particularly angry about is my son started in December 2019 - within 4 months the lecturers were on strike for months, followed by Covid and next to no teaching or even much work set and not even the benefits of any social life-repeat again 6 months later - he gave it up in Feb 2021 as a bad job and returned to a job in IT ( he had already done an apprenticeship and 4 years work when he started Uni) - so he ended up with a £30k loan for very little at all , plus as you say paying a maintenance overpayment back - and in a job where payments back started immediately as was earning £34k . If this was business, then to be frank the contract wasn’t fulfilled - those starting that year and for half of the 2020 intake should in my opinion have had their tuition aspect wiped!

But hopefully the degree they got will allow them to earn more than without, so they should be in a better position than they would have been without the student fees.

or a large chunk refunded… not sure about wiped.

Even if they were just keeping in line with decent mortgage rates it would be potentially achievable to pay some of these loans back before write off. I feel like the government has engineered the interest rates to keep balances high, so they get a regular income from people for 25-40 years depending on your plan. There will be very few people paying off their loans in reality unless they are on £100ks per year

I just logged into my account and it’s 4.1% interest. Some months I paid less than the interest which is crazy. I’m sure mine will get wiped. I’m just under 50k in a much needed healthcare professional role, it’s not my fault the salaries are so low.

Mine went from 49k to 57k despite having paid every single month since 2018 (aside from 6 months of SMP).

Private lending is really regulated, and they wouldn’t be able to deal with loans like this, so I can’t see why the government is able to.

Id love to pay mine off - I borrowed it, I fully accept I need to pay it back, but it would be nice if the few hundred that I pay every month was actually making a difference.

For plan 1, there are two different write off rules. If you started uni before 2006, it’s age 65. After 2006, it’s 25 years.

I started uni in 2009 and graduated 2013 (year in industry)
Started Masters 2015 graduated 2016

It’s an extra income tax really just done dishonestly and with the option for the richest to avoid paying

Agreed. Nice little earner for them. It’s essentially a higher education tax, let’s face it…

A student loan is nothing at all to even think about let alone worry about! Most never actually ever pay the loan off. It’s entirely separate to any other form of finance. You pay it off at such low rates anyway. Forget about it.

That used to be the case that the thresholds before you'd start paying it back were pretty high, now most are set to just over minimum wage. I'm paying more than £100 every month and paid 7%+ most months last year. Most of my payments go to interest. Another 20 years before write off

Definitely not the case for DS. He left at Easter of year 2 and started getting deductions from his pay as soon as he started working. £24k student loan for no qualification, he’s trying to pay it off asap as it’s a reminder of a bad time.

This is how I see it too. Not worth worrying about. Getting my degrees was worth it and I defo earn more as a result.

Are you using your degrees in your work?