Student finance debt and ADHD

star00786

Hi my daughter who is 21 has been at uni this last 2 years. We have been supporting her financially as well as the student finance. She has approx 30K in debt on student finance. 

The issue is when she finished year 1 she failed on one module we couldn’t understand why but then further probing etc  my daughter has ADHD. There has been evidence of this in the past in some of her behaviours but she is fantastic at masking! So we went to see the GP she has been referred for assessment (2year wait) and was diagnosed as dyslexic by uni. We notified student finance and they put in place some funding so she could get some student support. Ahe never got anything for the dyslexia in terms of equipment. 

So she went back and did year 1 again, and has failed again. She is now home and on UC and in a worse state than we realised. She is being helped by the GP for insomnia and severe anxiety. We know uni isn’t the right place for her. But … is there anything we can do about the student finance debt she has accrued? 

MyRealNameToo

star00786 said:

Hi my daughter who is 21 has been at uni this last 2 years. We have been supporting her financially as well as the student finance. She has approx 30K in debt on student finance. 

The issue is when she finished year 1 she failed on one module we couldn’t understand why but then further probing etc  my daughter has ADHD. There has been evidence of this in the past in some of her behaviours but she is fantastic at masking! So we went to see the GP she has been referred for assessment (2year wait) and was diagnosed as dyslexic by uni. We notified student finance and they put in place some funding so she could get some student support. Ahe never got anything for the dyslexia in terms of equipment. 

So she went back and did year 1 again, and has failed again. She is now home and on UC and in a worse state than we realised. She is being helped by the GP for insomnia and severe anxiety. We know uni isn’t the right place for her. But … is there anything we can do about the student finance debt she has accrued? 

What do you mean, "do something about it"?

You could repay it if you want to and can afford to. Else she's not earning enough so won't be repaying it now and it can just sit there on its relatively low interest rate. If she never earns enough it gets written off in 40 years. 

Peter999_2

MyRealNameToo said:

star00786 said:

Hi my daughter who is 21 has been at uni this last 2 years. We have been supporting her financially as well as the student finance. She has approx 30K in debt on student finance. 

The issue is when she finished year 1 she failed on one module we couldn’t understand why but then further probing etc  my daughter has ADHD. There has been evidence of this in the past in some of her behaviours but she is fantastic at masking! So we went to see the GP she has been referred for assessment (2year wait) and was diagnosed as dyslexic by uni. We notified student finance and they put in place some funding so she could get some student support. Ahe never got anything for the dyslexia in terms of equipment. 

So she went back and did year 1 again, and has failed again. She is now home and on UC and in a worse state than we realised. She is being helped by the GP for insomnia and severe anxiety. We know uni isn’t the right place for her. But … is there anything we can do about the student finance debt she has accrued? 

What do you mean, "do something about it"?

You could repay it if you want to and can afford to. Else she's not earning enough so won't be repaying it now and it can just sit there on its relatively low interest rate. If she never earns enough it gets written off in 40 years. 

It MAY get written off after 40 years.     Don't forget the government can change the rules any time they want and I wouldn't put it past the current government to change this so it's never written off or that you have to start paying it back on lot lower earnings (or just freeze the current amount forever so it makes it so more and more people have to pay it back.    The interest rates on these loans are horrendous.

noitsnotme

MyRealNameToo said:

star00786 said:

Hi my daughter who is 21 has been at uni this last 2 years. We have been supporting her financially as well as the student finance. She has approx 30K in debt on student finance. 

The issue is when she finished year 1 she failed on one module we couldn’t understand why but then further probing etc  my daughter has ADHD. There has been evidence of this in the past in some of her behaviours but she is fantastic at masking! So we went to see the GP she has been referred for assessment (2year wait) and was diagnosed as dyslexic by uni. We notified student finance and they put in place some funding so she could get some student support. Ahe never got anything for the dyslexia in terms of equipment. 

So she went back and did year 1 again, and has failed again. She is now home and on UC and in a worse state than we realised. She is being helped by the GP for insomnia and severe anxiety. We know uni isn’t the right place for her. But … is there anything we can do about the student finance debt she has accrued? 

 it can just sit there on its relatively low interest rate.

Peter999_2 said:

MyRealNameToo said:

star00786 said:

Hi my daughter who is 21 has been at uni this last 2 years. We have been supporting her financially as well as the student finance. She has approx 30K in debt on student finance. 

The issue is when she finished year 1 she failed on one module we couldn’t understand why but then further probing etc  my daughter has ADHD. There has been evidence of this in the past in some of her behaviours but she is fantastic at masking! So we went to see the GP she has been referred for assessment (2year wait) and was diagnosed as dyslexic by uni. We notified student finance and they put in place some funding so she could get some student support. Ahe never got anything for the dyslexia in terms of equipment. 

So she went back and did year 1 again, and has failed again. She is now home and on UC and in a worse state than we realised. She is being helped by the GP for insomnia and severe anxiety. We know uni isn’t the right place for her. But … is there anything we can do about the student finance debt she has accrued? 

What do you mean, "do something about it"?

You could repay it if you want to and can afford to. Else she's not earning enough so won't be repaying it now and it can just sit there on its relatively low interest rate. If she never earns enough it gets written off in 40 years. 

The interest rates on these loans are horrendous.

Hmm.  That's quite a big difference of opinion.

MyRealNameToo

noitsnotme said:

MyRealNameToo said:

star00786 said:

Hi my daughter who is 21 has been at uni this last 2 years. We have been supporting her financially as well as the student finance. She has approx 30K in debt on student finance. 

The issue is when she finished year 1 she failed on one module we couldn’t understand why but then further probing etc  my daughter has ADHD. There has been evidence of this in the past in some of her behaviours but she is fantastic at masking! So we went to see the GP she has been referred for assessment (2year wait) and was diagnosed as dyslexic by uni. We notified student finance and they put in place some funding so she could get some student support. Ahe never got anything for the dyslexia in terms of equipment. 

So she went back and did year 1 again, and has failed again. She is now home and on UC and in a worse state than we realised. She is being helped by the GP for insomnia and severe anxiety. We know uni isn’t the right place for her. But … is there anything we can do about the student finance debt she has accrued? 

 it can just sit there on its relatively low interest rate.

Peter999_2 said:

MyRealNameToo said:

star00786 said:

Hi my daughter who is 21 has been at uni this last 2 years. We have been supporting her financially as well as the student finance. She has approx 30K in debt on student finance. 

The issue is when she finished year 1 she failed on one module we couldn’t understand why but then further probing etc  my daughter has ADHD. There has been evidence of this in the past in some of her behaviours but she is fantastic at masking! So we went to see the GP she has been referred for assessment (2year wait) and was diagnosed as dyslexic by uni. We notified student finance and they put in place some funding so she could get some student support. Ahe never got anything for the dyslexia in terms of equipment. 

So she went back and did year 1 again, and has failed again. She is now home and on UC and in a worse state than we realised. She is being helped by the GP for insomnia and severe anxiety. We know uni isn’t the right place for her. But … is there anything we can do about the student finance debt she has accrued? 

What do you mean, "do something about it"?

You could repay it if you want to and can afford to. Else she's not earning enough so won't be repaying it now and it can just sit there on its relatively low interest rate. If she never earns enough it gets written off in 40 years. 

The interest rates on these loans are horrendous.

Hmm.  That's quite a big difference of opinion.

The current rate is 4.3% whereas looking at the normally cheaper end of the personal loans space are offering 5.9% APR at the moment so in my mind it is currently relatively low if below the going rate for personal borrowing.  

Voyager2002

Peter999_2 said:

MyRealNameToo said:

star00786 said:

Hi my daughter who is 21 has been at uni this last 2 years. We have been supporting her financially as well as the student finance. She has approx 30K in debt on student finance. 

The issue is when she finished year 1 she failed on one module we couldn’t understand why but then further probing etc  my daughter has ADHD. There has been evidence of this in the past in some of her behaviours but she is fantastic at masking! So we went to see the GP she has been referred for assessment (2year wait) and was diagnosed as dyslexic by uni. We notified student finance and they put in place some funding so she could get some student support. Ahe never got anything for the dyslexia in terms of equipment. 

So she went back and did year 1 again, and has failed again. She is now home and on UC and in a worse state than we realised. She is being helped by the GP for insomnia and severe anxiety. We know uni isn’t the right place for her. But … is there anything we can do about the student finance debt she has accrued? 

What do you mean, "do something about it"?

You could repay it if you want to and can afford to. Else she's not earning enough so won't be repaying it now and it can just sit there on its relatively low interest rate. If she never earns enough it gets written off in 40 years. 

It MAY get written off after 40 years.     Don't forget the government can change the rules any time they want and I wouldn't put it past the current government to change this so it's never written off or that you have to start paying it back on lot lower earnings (or just freeze the current amount forever so it makes it so more and more people have to pay it back.   

When/if the government makes changes to the terms of student loans, the changes apply to new loans taken out after the date of the change. No government is likely to overturn contracts that are in place already.

Peter999_2

MyRealNameToo said:

noitsnotme said:

MyRealNameToo said:

star00786 said:

Hi my daughter who is 21 has been at uni this last 2 years. We have been supporting her financially as well as the student finance. She has approx 30K in debt on student finance. 

The issue is when she finished year 1 she failed on one module we couldn’t understand why but then further probing etc  my daughter has ADHD. There has been evidence of this in the past in some of her behaviours but she is fantastic at masking! So we went to see the GP she has been referred for assessment (2year wait) and was diagnosed as dyslexic by uni. We notified student finance and they put in place some funding so she could get some student support. Ahe never got anything for the dyslexia in terms of equipment. 

So she went back and did year 1 again, and has failed again. She is now home and on UC and in a worse state than we realised. She is being helped by the GP for insomnia and severe anxiety. We know uni isn’t the right place for her. But … is there anything we can do about the student finance debt she has accrued? 

 it can just sit there on its relatively low interest rate.

Peter999_2 said:

MyRealNameToo said:

star00786 said:

Hi my daughter who is 21 has been at uni this last 2 years. We have been supporting her financially as well as the student finance. She has approx 30K in debt on student finance. 

The issue is when she finished year 1 she failed on one module we couldn’t understand why but then further probing etc  my daughter has ADHD. There has been evidence of this in the past in some of her behaviours but she is fantastic at masking! So we went to see the GP she has been referred for assessment (2year wait) and was diagnosed as dyslexic by uni. We notified student finance and they put in place some funding so she could get some student support. Ahe never got anything for the dyslexia in terms of equipment. 

So she went back and did year 1 again, and has failed again. She is now home and on UC and in a worse state than we realised. She is being helped by the GP for insomnia and severe anxiety. We know uni isn’t the right place for her. But … is there anything we can do about the student finance debt she has accrued? 

What do you mean, "do something about it"?

You could repay it if you want to and can afford to. Else she's not earning enough so won't be repaying it now and it can just sit there on its relatively low interest rate. If she never earns enough it gets written off in 40 years. 

The interest rates on these loans are horrendous.

Hmm.  That's quite a big difference of opinion.

The current rate is 4.3% whereas looking at the normally cheaper end of the personal loans space are offering 5.9% APR at the moment so in my mind it is currently relatively low if below the going rate for personal borrowing.  

The interest rate is actually up to RPI + 3% depending on how much you earn for loans taken out between 2012 and 2023.   At the moment RPI is 4.3% so for people earning £52.145 it is 7.3%.    

Peter999_2

Voyager2002 said:

Peter999_2 said:

MyRealNameToo said:

star00786 said:

Hi my daughter who is 21 has been at uni this last 2 years. We have been supporting her financially as well as the student finance. She has approx 30K in debt on student finance. 

The issue is when she finished year 1 she failed on one module we couldn’t understand why but then further probing etc  my daughter has ADHD. There has been evidence of this in the past in some of her behaviours but she is fantastic at masking! So we went to see the GP she has been referred for assessment (2year wait) and was diagnosed as dyslexic by uni. We notified student finance and they put in place some funding so she could get some student support. Ahe never got anything for the dyslexia in terms of equipment. 

So she went back and did year 1 again, and has failed again. She is now home and on UC and in a worse state than we realised. She is being helped by the GP for insomnia and severe anxiety. We know uni isn’t the right place for her. But … is there anything we can do about the student finance debt she has accrued? 

What do you mean, "do something about it"?

You could repay it if you want to and can afford to. Else she's not earning enough so won't be repaying it now and it can just sit there on its relatively low interest rate. If she never earns enough it gets written off in 40 years. 

It MAY get written off after 40 years.     Don't forget the government can change the rules any time they want and I wouldn't put it past the current government to change this so it's never written off or that you have to start paying it back on lot lower earnings (or just freeze the current amount forever so it makes it so more and more people have to pay it back.   

When/if the government makes changes to the terms of student loans, the changes apply to new loans taken out after the date of the change. No government is likely to overturn contracts that are in place already.

Sadly, the government can make changes retrospectively - if they get enough MPs to vote for them.
At some point it will start dawning on people just what an absolute disaster of a government we have - once the tax revenue plumits they are going to be desperate to make money from somewhere else and who knows if they decide Students are the easiest mark.

Don't forget the previous government already restrospectively made changes to the loans and there is nothing to stop a government from doing so in the future.    They explicitly stated that the repayment threshold would rise annually in line with average earnings - and then promptly froze the threshold in 2016 with no parlimentary vote.

Government defends decision to retrospectively change student loan terms in parliamentary debate - Save the Student

MeteredOut

star00786 said:

Hi my daughter who is 21 has been at uni this last 2 years. We have been supporting her financially as well as the student finance. She has approx 30K in debt on student finance. 

The issue is when she finished year 1 she failed on one module we couldn’t understand why but then further probing etc  my daughter has ADHD. There has been evidence of this in the past in some of her behaviours but she is fantastic at masking! So we went to see the GP she has been referred for assessment (2year wait) and was diagnosed as dyslexic by uni. We notified student finance and they put in place some funding so she could get some student support. Ahe never got anything for the dyslexia in terms of equipment. 

So she went back and did year 1 again, and has failed again. She is now home and on UC and in a worse state than we realised. She is being helped by the GP for insomnia and severe anxiety. We know uni isn’t the right place for her. But … is there anything we can do about the student finance debt she has accrued? 

Its not clear what you're expecting, but its also not clear if she has formally been diagnosed with ADHD or dyslexia.

Who at the uni diagnosed her with dyslexia?

I'm not sure either condition will allow her to write off/reduce any debts, if that is your actual question.

Altior

There's no value in the OP paying off the daughter's debt due to prospective possible changes to the legislation.

Seems to me the answer is to do nothing. It is effectively a commitment to an additional marginal income tax rate for her above a certain income threshold. If she does eventually start paying that effective additional marginal tax rate, she'll be doing comparatively well compared to being on UC... 

MyRealNameToo

Peter999_2 said:

MyRealNameToo said:

noitsnotme said:

MyRealNameToo said:

star00786 said:

Hi my daughter who is 21 has been at uni this last 2 years. We have been supporting her financially as well as the student finance. She has approx 30K in debt on student finance. 

The issue is when she finished year 1 she failed on one module we couldn’t understand why but then further probing etc  my daughter has ADHD. There has been evidence of this in the past in some of her behaviours but she is fantastic at masking! So we went to see the GP she has been referred for assessment (2year wait) and was diagnosed as dyslexic by uni. We notified student finance and they put in place some funding so she could get some student support. Ahe never got anything for the dyslexia in terms of equipment. 

So she went back and did year 1 again, and has failed again. She is now home and on UC and in a worse state than we realised. She is being helped by the GP for insomnia and severe anxiety. We know uni isn’t the right place for her. But … is there anything we can do about the student finance debt she has accrued? 

 it can just sit there on its relatively low interest rate.

Peter999_2 said:

MyRealNameToo said:

star00786 said:

Hi my daughter who is 21 has been at uni this last 2 years. We have been supporting her financially as well as the student finance. She has approx 30K in debt on student finance. 

The issue is when she finished year 1 she failed on one module we couldn’t understand why but then further probing etc  my daughter has ADHD. There has been evidence of this in the past in some of her behaviours but she is fantastic at masking! So we went to see the GP she has been referred for assessment (2year wait) and was diagnosed as dyslexic by uni. We notified student finance and they put in place some funding so she could get some student support. Ahe never got anything for the dyslexia in terms of equipment. 

So she went back and did year 1 again, and has failed again. She is now home and on UC and in a worse state than we realised. She is being helped by the GP for insomnia and severe anxiety. We know uni isn’t the right place for her. But … is there anything we can do about the student finance debt she has accrued? 

What do you mean, "do something about it"?

You could repay it if you want to and can afford to. Else she's not earning enough so won't be repaying it now and it can just sit there on its relatively low interest rate. If she never earns enough it gets written off in 40 years. 

The interest rates on these loans are horrendous.

Hmm.  That's quite a big difference of opinion.

The current rate is 4.3% whereas looking at the normally cheaper end of the personal loans space are offering 5.9% APR at the moment so in my mind it is currently relatively low if below the going rate for personal borrowing.  

The interest rate is actually up to RPI + 3% depending on how much you earn for loans taken out between 2012 and 2023.   At the moment RPI is 4.3% so for people earning £52.145 it is 7.3%.    

According to https://www.gov.uk/repaying-your-student-loan/what-you-pay plan 5 is simply 4.3% at the moment

Plan 5 started in 2023 so aligns with the OP saying the last 2 years at uni