Why haven't student loans become a huge mis-selling scandal like ppi?

steampowered

respectmymonah said:

I don't think this is a savings and investments issue, it's more of a general point about how much university has been pushed on Millennials and now Zoomers  as the norm, "we're all going to uni" when it's basically a 3-4 year holiday camp with educational activities meanwhile my brothers were both in a position to buy their first home by 20 and I'm not jealous at all.
I'm taking a complaint to the PHSO because of the way repayments are calculated for employees with incomes that vary within the same tax year.

It's only about 50% of young people that go to university. Given that graduates earn substantially more than non-graduates on average over the course of their working lives, that seems a sensible figure. 

If you treat university as a holiday camp rather than working hard and making the most of the opportunities uni offers, you can't really complain if you don't get the results you'd like at the end. You have to take a bit of responsibility - you get out what you put in. You can't sign up for a gym membership, go to the gym once a year, then complain when you don't get fit.

The PHSO can only consider complaints about UK government departments and public bodies on a referral from an MP. I don't believe you can complain directly. I'm not sure what you are complaining about or which public body you would be complaining to.

Speedbird676

Oliver1191 said:

In my case, the debt was paid off ages ago. The original debt was 15k, with interest i would have paid back around 30k i would have thought.

Mine too, and I haven't given it a second thought since. Move on with your life and stop "stressing" about things that are done.

I am a similar age to you and had a debt of roughly £15k when I graduated. I didn't pay anywhere near £30k back.

respectmymonah

steampowered said:

respectmymonah said:

I don't think this is a savings and investments issue, it's more of a general point about how much university has been pushed on Millennials and now Zoomers  as the norm, "we're all going to uni" when it's basically a 3-4 year holiday camp with educational activities meanwhile my brothers were both in a position to buy their first home by 20 and I'm not jealous at all.
I'm taking a complaint to the PHSO because of the way repayments are calculated for employees with incomes that vary within the same tax year.

It's only about 50% of young people that go to university. Given that graduates earn substantially more than non-graduates on average over the course of their working lives, that seems a sensible figure. 

If you treat university as a holiday camp rather than working hard and making the most of the opportunities uni offers, you can't really complain if you don't get the results you'd like at the end. You have to take a bit of responsibility - you get out what you put in. You can't sign up for a gym membership, go to the gym once a year, then complain when you don't get fit.

The PHSO can only consider complaints about UK government departments and public bodies on a referral from an MP. I don't believe you can complain directly. I'm not sure what you are complaining about or which public body you would be complaining to.

/
I agree with everything you say but I and a lot of others were sold the idea of university and the government have acted unlawfully in the way they have implemented the plan 2 system. I used to be bitter but as Maya Angelou said, be angry. So I'm doing something about it.

My complaint is that if you're an employee and your income varies within a tax year, as long your annual income is over the annual threshold, you will always "repay" more over that tax year than someone with more regular income for the same total annual income and you can't get a refund of the difference. The whole letter is 15 pages and I'm just waiting for the initial response from the PHSO after exhausting the SLC and DfE complaints systems, been at it since Jan 2019.

noclaf

Speedbird676 said:

Oliver1191 said:

In my case, the debt was paid off ages ago. The original debt was 15k, with interest i would have paid back around 30k i would have thought.

Mine too, and I haven't given it a second thought since. Move on with your life and stop "stressing" about things that are done.

I am a similar age to you and had a debt of roughly £15k when I graduated. I didn't pay anywhere near £30k back.

I borrowed £25k as came from a low income household so got the max student loan...with interest it was closer to £30k by the time I graduated. I am in my late 30's now and it's down to just over £15k..it's painful to think about and my original loan increased significantly due to retake years...only I can take the blame for those. However it's done now..in hindsight not sure if I would of gone to Uni due to the debt that accumulated but honestly I feel more sorry for some of the recent grads coming out of uni with £60k+...eye watering figures. I came close to paying off a chunk of my student loan years back but then lost my.job to redundancy so held off: glad I did hold off as with recent interest rates probably wasn't worthwhile paying early.

eskbanker

respectmymonah said:

....the government have acted unlawfully....

[...]

My complaint is that if you're an employee and your income varies within a tax year, as long your annual income is over the annual threshold, you will always "repay" more over that tax year than someone with more regular income for the same total annual income and you can't get a refund of the difference. The whole letter is 15 pages and I'm just waiting for the initial response from the PHSO after exhausting the SLC and DfE complaints systems, been at it since Jan 2019.

Obviously condensing 15 pages down to one sentence unavoidably loses some clarity, but that statement fails to identify why that outcome would be unlawful as such - there are all sorts of quirks of taxation that can be construed as penalising some more than others but that doesn't necessarily mean that they're inherently unfair, never mind actually unlawful.  Variable income may deliver different NI deductions and entitlements when compared with even distribution of the same total income, for example....

steampowered

respectmymonah said:

My complaint is that if you're an employee and your income varies within a tax year, as long your annual income is over the annual threshold, you will always "repay" more over that tax year than someone with more regular income for the same total annual income and you can't get a refund of the difference. The whole letter is 15 pages and I'm just waiting for the initial response from the PHSO after exhausting the SLC and DfE complaints systems, been at it since Jan 2019.

Without wishing to be rude, it sounds like this is a complete waste of your time. I wonder if you should be doing something more productive with your time?

You could quickly earn back far more than the money you think you've lost if you used the time spent pursuing this productively.

k12479

Oliver1191 said:

In the second instance were adequate safeguards in place to ensure that all young adults were able to make an informed financial decision free from duress?

Who made you take a student loan under duress, OP?

grumiofoundation

respectmymonah said:

steampowered said:

respectmymonah said:

I don't think this is a savings and investments issue, it's more of a general point about how much university has been pushed on Millennials and now Zoomers  as the norm, "we're all going to uni" when it's basically a 3-4 year holiday camp with educational activities meanwhile my brothers were both in a position to buy their first home by 20 and I'm not jealous at all.
I'm taking a complaint to the PHSO because of the way repayments are calculated for employees with incomes that vary within the same tax year.

It's only about 50% of young people that go to university. Given that graduates earn substantially more than non-graduates on average over the course of their working lives, that seems a sensible figure. 

If you treat university as a holiday camp rather than working hard and making the most of the opportunities uni offers, you can't really complain if you don't get the results you'd like at the end. You have to take a bit of responsibility - you get out what you put in. You can't sign up for a gym membership, go to the gym once a year, then complain when you don't get fit.

The PHSO can only consider complaints about UK government departments and public bodies on a referral from an MP. I don't believe you can complain directly. I'm not sure what you are complaining about or which public body you would be complaining to.

/
I agree with everything you say but I and a lot of others were sold the idea of university and the government have acted unlawfully in the way they have implemented the plan 2 system. I used to be bitter but as Maya Angelou said, be angry. So I'm doing something about it.

You chose to go.

respectmymonah said:

I don't think this is a savings and investments issue, it's more of a general point about how much university has been pushed on Millennials and now Zoomers  as the norm*, "we're all going to uni" when it's basically a 3-4 year holiday camp with educational activities meanwhile my brothers were both in a position to buy their first home by 20 and I'm not jealous at all. 
I'm taking a complaint to the PHSO because of the way repayments are calculated for employees with incomes that vary within the same tax year.

Speak for yourself. Some of us worked hard. 

*its the norm for certain subsets of society, not for 'all'

ict_guy

I take it the OP dropped out of Uni? 🤷‍♂️

rach_k

I'm in my mid-30s so probably received similar advice to the OP in school.  In my case (and I believe this is quite common), they also taught me to read.  When I received my student loan application forms and all of the bumf with them, I read it.  I also read all of the financial advice provided by my university.  The university also provided advice about how many hours it was considered acceptable to work and the different ways you could pay your fees.