To not feel very sorry for some student loan whiners

[Viviennemary]

There's been a lot of complaining about student loans and its wrong they seemed to have move the goalposts re paying back. StillI I read about this woman complaining her student loan is £120k and is going up every year. She was a student for 10 years fgs. Just as well the tax payer wasn't funding her. I hope these folk arent just going to be let away with not paying.

If you could afford to pay for them and chose not to, that’s a poor decision for your overall family wealth and future grandchildren etc.

You could have paid £30k, they’ll end up paying £100k + which is all money that can’t be spent elsewhere over their lifetime

This is not correct. Maintenance loans can be up to £14k per year - 50% more than tuition fees - so they absolutely are a significant factor in the size of student debt.

The reality is that going to uni in the U.K. now costs about £25k per year funded by a combination of loans, parents, student holiday/part time jobs. That’s £75k for 3 years. It’s HUGE.

Is it worth it? Are students getting value for money? Is the university experience really worth £75k?

Teachers and nhs staff should have their loans written off if they work for the nhs or state schools.

Why ?

@Pinkfluffypencilcase your post is complete nonsense. If your dd1 is earning £30k on a plan 2 loan she will be paying about £11 per month on her student loan not £200! No wonder you/she thinks she’s hard done by.

Thank you!

You do realise those who do literature go on to do all sorts of graduate careers including law, journalism, politics.

Literature is not a Micky Mouse degree (such an ignorant thing to say).

In my English and Classics subjects at university, the men outnumbered the women.

It's great to get A-levels in literature and the Arts but they won't pay the bills.

My literature degree paid the bills very nicely.

You mean the “future rich” pay more. Being poor as a young teen, making something of yourself and getting to a £51k salary is effectively being punished?

Yes, bursaries exist. My parents’ income at the time of me starting uni was £10k combined, they were working full-time - not UK, so wages much lower. I had oh-the-most-outrageous idea to study well, get into a top UK university (course not offered in my home country), and be offered the top bursary in my year (£6k), which I used to cover half my London living expenses. I had 3 other jobs on zero-hour contracts and tried to work as many shifts as possible alongside my high-contact hours degree, to pay for the rest of my food and bills.

I am a higher earner now, yes. I earn just over £1k over the threshold once my salary is converted. I still don’t see how it’s fair that I pay £40-50k extra over the course of my loan’s life, compared to someone who did just a liiitle bit less well and is going to save themselves that much cash in the long run?

Why should I be punished for getting an education, and breaking through the social and financial barriers my upbringing gave me?

That is one quick way of belittling girls and young women who aspire to be excellent in those fields.

Perhaps instead of pushing women into STEM, we should be teaching them how to stand up for themselves, fight for their rights both in a work and family environment, and challenge those men who actually make the rules?

Working-class men with a high salary by the age of 30 are likely partnered up with a working-class woman of a similar background, who has been taught that being at home and raising a family and supporting her husband is more valuable to her life than aspiring to establish herself in a well-paid career. The working-class tradie has likely arrived at his high salary by going off to work and letting the woman deal with a sick baby or toddler, hospital appointments, and a million other things that mean she will find it very difficult to get a well-paid job. What with having no degree, and 10 years of being out of work, raising the well-paid man’s children.

(this is obviously half-satire and I do not at all believe this is true of all 30yo men who work in trades, nor is it meant to be purely stereotypical. But let’s stop kidding ourselves that only certain avenues are valid for getting women out of poverty. We need to challenge the cultural norms first…)

The whole point of going to university is to better yourself - educationally and hopefully economically.

There are cliff edges throughout the tax and benefits system. The basic concept is that the more you earn the better able you are to contribute. That’s how progressive tax systems work. You can’t avoid paying taxes on your higher earnings on the basis that you used to be poor, that’s not how the tax system works. You’ve bettered yourself and so now you have to make a bigger contribution; you’re not being punished.

Are you not in the UK? I don’t quite understand how your interest and payments are being calculated. In the UK, Student loan interest is calculated on national insurance eligible income. If you reduce this by eg making contributions to your pension you could bring your income below the £50k threshold. [just to clarify - I think you have to do this by salary sacrifice]

Ohh someone is a bit pissed they didn't figure out how to avoid student loans! Love my debt free life....enjoy the interest 🤣🤣

I’m now looking at the point that if I get any further promotions I’ll be looking at a 51% tax (if we include income tax, NI and student loan) on anything above 50,000. And the fucking loan never goes down. I’ll be going part time as soon I get a promotion ( what fabulous productivity for a capable 32 year old) - it just genuinely isn’t worth it.

If I had realised how much I would have paid back and over how long, I would have got a bank loan, but now 6 years into payments it seems better to just let it carry on.

I did try and research how much and for how long I might be paying it back before taking student finance on, but I dont feel it was clear at the time. My degree wasn't in maths or economics and I am not a numbers person obviously!

I am more than happy to pay it back, but having been made redundant twice, its nice knowing its something I wont have to pay on top of my bills while out of work and was happy to keep repaying when I was working again.

I'm currently applying for other jobs with a higher salary, so hopefully will pay it off sooner if I am successful.

I went to university for free. But I'm not a cunt, so I care about the predicament we have created for young people. I'm also not a liar.

Neither am I. I assume you didn't learn maths at school to figure out a way of going to uni without getting debts! I think you maybe lied about the first part of that sentence.

When did you go to uni and what was your degree/job?

Fascinating post of 21.54, @EstrellaPolar

Teamwork as you describe, including financial teamwork, is a valid life choice one sees little of on MumsNet. But it only works when the financially vulnerable partner - the woman interrupting or slowing her career in your scenario - is 100% taken care of should the worst happen.

To read MumsNet, you are a fool to risk it. Are there really so few good men? If so do we as a society need some kind of contractual arrangement? I have no idea what to think.

I never went to university. Started 6th form, hated it and got entry level job instead. Then went to college and evening/weekend classes and got professional qualification. Then did the same again in my forties. Earn 6 figures now.

there are two main issues in my simple mind. Employers requiring degrees, in a lot of cases that aren’t really necessary. This encourages people to get into this position. Then student loans should not incur interest, or if they do it shouldn’t be compound and should be a discount on official rates not an addition to it.
Additionally, now as an employer, I find that people leaving uni with degrees quite often only have theoretical knowledge which means they need to be completely trained up whereas a junior who has worked their way up, is a much better option

I had to pay for my initial courses initially and then once my career was established , my employers had training agreements . I appreciate times have changed and the amount of the fees are ridiculous if they aren’t going to provide the careers promised.

I’ve checked with her she says at least 150. She does over time so it varies.
if she went in 2020 is that plan 2?

Because there a shortage

So are you saying ‘more fool them for doing a degree’?

By age 31, graduates typically earn 37%–38% more than non-graduates. In 2024, graduates earned an average of £42,000 annually, which is £11,500 higher than non-graduates, with postgraduates earning even more.

Personally doing my masters allowed my salary to jump from £32k annually to £69k annually. Yes I had to pay for my course but it’s certainly paid off.

Yes they can, but I can only speak from experience when I say that very few of my school friends or university friends received the full amount - the vast majority of us got £3k a year or thereabouts.

Of course it’s not worth it, my debt when I graduated was £47k, it’s now £56k despite almost a decade of repayments. Sadly, many jobs require degrees, even jobs which in days gone past did not. So whilst on paper it’s not worth it, in practice it’s necessary to get the career you want. (That said I know apprenticeships in some professions e.g law and accountancy that wouldn’t traditionally have offered that route, are becoming increasingly common which is only a good thing).

Most jobs don't need really need degrees. It was a ridiculous notion for 50% of people to get degrees. I would go back to government funded degrees for roles that really need degrees - training to be a doctor, engineering etc. Stop the necessitation of degrees for nursing, teaching, etc. It never used to be and standards in both are no better now.

Vast majority do NOT leave Uni with 75k of debt or be able to claim the full mtce loan either.

As to whether its worth it, for some, like my DD definitely, for many others no.

However, on improving standard of living, unless a graduate goes into a very high wage occupation, the debt repayments wipe out any wage rises, esp into the higher tax rate bands.

Thresholds and the interest rate need to be revisited.

Most on the thread are not in the age group hit hardest. People are posting because it’s not working for younger people.