'Urgent! Help fight the Government’s student loan U-turn that could cost...'

dizzie

N1AK wrote: »

Only someone with a poor grasp of economics would discount the chance of deflation entirely when setting terms for a loan.

Well, I'm not convinced that any recent government ever have had a reasonable grasp of economics. Still, negative interest rates on loans I am sure must have seemed inconceivable at the time, even though some mortgages in Europe now have negative interest rates! It seems quite crazy to be paid (effectively) to take a loan, since if the reverse became commonplace for savings accounts...surely most would withdraw their savings in favour of bolstering their mattress!

Marktheshark

Personally I feel adult further education should be employer funded, we might see a drop in these useless corn flake box cut out degrees.
If an employer insist on degree qualified staff let them foot the bill, why should the tax payer foot the bill.

photome

sent my email to Chloe Smith on the 7th....no reply yet

Keeping_Motivated

I've had this reply from my local MP today

Hi, Thank you for contacting me about the student loan repayment threshold. The Government is committed to maintaining the UK’s world class higher education system. Record numbers of young people have secured places this year, including those from disadvantaged backgrounds. Higher education will remain accessible to all who have the ability to benefit from it, with no need to pay for tuition fees up-front. On average, graduates will go on to earn more on than those without higher level qualifications. As you are aware, the repayment threshold was set to £21,000 for post-2012 borrowers. However, to ensure that the costs of the student loan book remain transparent and affordable in the long term, the Government is consulting on a proposal to keep the loan repayment threshold at £21,000 for five years for loans issued to entrants after September 2012. The consultation closes tomorrow on 14th October and I hope you will feel able to put in your own submissions here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/freezing-the-student-loan-repayment-threshold. The Government will then assess the submissions and respond to them.

photome

Keeping_Motivated wrote: »

I've had this reply from my local MP today

Hi, Thank you for contacting me about the student loan repayment threshold. The Government is committed to maintaining the UK’s world class higher education system. Record numbers of young people have secured places this year, including those from disadvantaged backgrounds. Higher education will remain accessible to all who have the ability to benefit from it, with no need to pay for tuition fees up-front. On average, graduates will go on to earn more on than those without higher level qualifications. As you are aware, the repayment threshold was set to £21,000 for post-2012 borrowers. However, to ensure that the costs of the student loan book remain transparent and affordable in the long term, the Government is consulting on a proposal to keep the loan repayment threshold at £21,000 for five years for loans issued to entrants after September 2012. The consultation closes tomorrow on 14th October and I hope you will feel able to put in your own submissions here: www.gov.uk/government/consultations/freezing-the-student-loan-repayment-threshold. The Government will then assess the submissions and respond to them.

I have filled in the online response as my MP cant be bothered to reply

Andypandyboy

Email personalised and sent.

I agree loans are a ticking timebomb as repayment is low, but it is the principle of retrospective changes that most irks me. Aconteact should have the same terms and conditions as when it was signed, not be changed on an adhoc basis.

splodgethefirst

I have personalised, emailed and sent. I hope that it makes a difference.

setmefree2

dizzie wrote: »

Setmefree, if the government is allowed to get away with retrospective change, then it will have crossed the rubicon. The question need not be "Do the changes now warrant paying back the loan or as much of it as people are able to", but "Now they've changed the conditions once.....can and will they do it again?".

After all, they could decide to freeze the repayment threshold indefinitely...they could decide to reduce it......they could decide to put up the interest rate!!

After all, if they are allowed to get away with changing the terms and conditions on loans already taken out ONCE.....what is stopping them doing it again in the future?

Totally agree with you.

They could also decide that students aren't allowed to pay student loans back as a one off payment, which is something else to be considered when thinking about paying back student loans.

You know what's really funny is that all the posters who said the government would never retrospectively change student loan terms and conditions and that therefore every student should take government student loans - they've all gone! Including ML.

dizzie

What really irks me is that in almost trebling tuition fees, the government tried to downplay this by vocally reassuring people that the threshold would be higher than it was before, and would be uprated annually in line with average earnings from 2017.

In actual fact, if the repayment threshold is frozen for FIVE years, this will have been a downright lie. This means that when the repayment threshold is finally uprated, the threshold will have dropped in real terms to around....yes you've guessed it, about £15,000!

And for those posters who try to defend the government by saying that this promise was not incorporated into the regulations? Well, I would respond by saying that this is a rather sneaky move on behalf of the UK Government. Frankly the electorate should be able to rely on written and spoken commitments that were presented as part and parcel of the new student loan agreement, without having to get a legal brain to comb the regulations to make sure that they made good on that commitment!

In summary, the commitment to uprate from 2017 was made loud and clear....so loud and clear in fact that you only need to go onto university websites to find that prospective students were and are still being told that the "repayment threshold of £21,000 WILL be uprated in line with average earnings from April 2017"

If this change goes through retrospectively, then we will know one thing for sure. If you take out a student loan, by signing on that dotted line, you are giving the UK government a licence to charge you what they want, whenever they want! After all, what is stopping them making further retrospective changes in the future?

If this happens, then future students should be concerned and we should perhaps start calling this the Student Loan Gamble!

dizzie

Marktheshark wrote: »

Personally I feel adult further education should be employer funded, we might see a drop in these useless corn flake box cut out degrees.
If an employer insist on degree qualified staff let them foot the bill, why should the tax payer foot the bill.

I have some sympathy with you. Since the Higher Education numbers have exploded, it seems that employers are asking for degrees for all sorts of jobs that never required one before! And the laws of supply and demand dictate that with so many unemployed graduates desperate for jobs, they can pay them less too! Maybe the government should consider a graduate tax on employers!

You have to wonder though, with some universities now calling for tuition fees to rise even further - do we have the most efficient HE systems in Europe? Can you justify fees of £9000 for a few contact hours per week, access to some library resources and an opportunity to live in overpriced university accommodation in your first year? Moreover, if our other EU neighbours can afford to charge their citizens less to obtain a degree....just WHAT are we doing wrong?