Yes, people don’t realise the danger isn’t that of students being poor with money.
Defaulting, which means the guarantor becomes liable for the rent for the whole contract could happen if a student is ill and has to go home (more frequent than you think - especially with mental health issues rising) or a break-down in the relationship between sharers, or due to failing a course.
Kids move out if their accommodation for all kinds of reasons that you simply cannot predict and which aren’t due to irresponsibility. Therefore if you sign as guarantor, whilst you hope strongly that you won’t be called on, having signed you have to accept that you could be and many parents are called on to meet their guarantor responsibilities every year. It really would be folly to sign up because ‘I will never be called on becaue my child is a good boy’ if you cannot actually afford the financial commitment or it would place you and your family in financial jeopardy.
It’s not an equal access system is it. Those from more well off backgrounds have parents who can be guarantors, pay chunks of rent or deposits upfront, buy a buy to let, have the fullest choice of accommodations which require funding before loans become available. Parental money plus understanding the system gives access advantages. Even paying for insurance which exempts you from responsibility as guarantor to the others in shared in accommodation costs money, that those hard pressed probably are less likely to take out, leaving themselves more exposed.
It’s difficult to know how this can be changed, given much accommodation is privately provided and of course LLs want to protect their assets and not be out of pocket when students default. However, for a government talking about ‘levelling up’ and widening access, an increased proportion if Uni accommodation being privately owned works against levelling up, as does reducing the wage at which student loans start being paid off and lengthening the period over which it’s paid off.
Debt of all kinds, even manageable student loans which can be seen as a graduate tax, is more scary and off-putting to families for whom all debt has very negative connotations. The barriers to equal access remain firmly in place. Those who glibly suggest alternatives such as finding another relative to be guarantor, or paying bigger chunks upfront build the barriers higher by showing the students and the families of those with less means, than most students and their families have zero understanding of their financial situation, and make them feel ‘out if place’ amongst the well off, who cannot even imagine the difficulties those with less means face, as shown by their tone-deaf suggestions.