With the difference in terms and charges, should post-graduate loans be paid off if possible?

mo2Bs

My adult offspring have both used student finance loans to cover the fees for their Masters in the past few years.  I know that the advise is generally not to repay their under-graduate loans, but I believe the terms of the post-grad student finance are different and so I am not sure if the same advise applies or even exactly what the difference in terms is.  Any advise/information on this would be gratefully received.

MalMonroe

I know that Martin's been on TV recently speaking about this and he's also written a recent article in the link below -

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/students/student-loans-tuition-fees-changes/

There's also this info - https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/students/postgraduate-loans/

My daughter is half way through her MA at the moment and we're not panicking about repaying that loan, yet. 

kaMelo

mo2Bs said:

My adult offspring have both used student finance loans to cover the fees for their Masters in the past few years.  I know that the advise is generally not to repay their under-graduate loans, but I believe the terms of the post-grad student finance are different and so I am not sure if the same advise applies or even exactly what the difference in terms is.  Any advise/information on this would be gratefully received.

I don't know quite what you mean by that as you don't get the choice of paying or not, whether you pay or not depends upon your earnings. The earnings threshold for post-grad is set lower than undergraduate at £21,000, any earnings over that you will pay 6% in England, 9% in Scotland and NI.

If you were referring to whether to voluntarily pay it off early, that's a calculation that you or they will have to work out. 

Mega salary in secure employment with prospects, pay it off quickly. 
Minimum wage with no prospects, do nothing.  
Most people will fall somewhere in between and you (they) need to do the figures, especially if their earnings breach the undergraduate threshold as they will be paying 15% on any earnings above that level in England (18% Scotland and NI)

The only other way I can see to choose not to repay is take two jobs paying £20,000 each, as neither breaches any threshold no repayments are due.