New! Student Finance Calculator 2012

Singandbehappy wrote: »

Hi, I've tried the student loan repayment calculator and come up with the following: £9,000 p.a. tuition fee loan, £5,000 maintenance loan, £25,000 starting salary (roughly - the sliders are a little fiddly!). Repayment is £36,000, reduced to £20,250 in today's money, and not repaid in full.


But the studentfinance direct .gov .uk calculator with the same input gives a repayment of over £118,000 repaid after just over 27 years.


I'm a bit confused by the vast difference between these two - can anyone help please?! Thanks

Quote:
In his report, Mr Willetts played down fears that the funding system is not sustainable in the long run but said the £9,000 maximum fees – which universities want to see raised – could not be frozen indefinitely.
He proposed that the £21,000 earnings threshold for loan repayments is frozen for the five-year parliament. These questions are expected to be addressed in the government-wide spending review this autumn.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/budget-2015-maintenance-grants-for-poorer-students-to-be-scrapped-in-next-round-of-cuts-10373507.html

Since it's been proposed by the Tories that the £21,000 threshold should be frozen - and let's face it, this looks like it probably will happen - is there any chance that MSE can now change the Student Finance Calculator to provide students and parents with a scenario in which the threshold is not increased.

Is the student calculator in it's current form not misleading?

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/students/student-finance-calculator

Those on median graduate earnings – earning around £23,000 in their early 20s, rising to £34,000 in their early 50s – will end up repaying over £6,000 more in total over their lifetimes.
This increased cost works out higher than that faced by poorer and richer graduates.

By not raising the amount in line with inflation, the Chancellor will collect an extra £1.4bn a year from graduates by effectively reducing the threshold to near its 2012 level of £15,000, the IFS said.
That would be equivalent to £3,800 per student and represent an extra demand of £6,000 for people who go into middle-income careers.
The IFS said a graduate earning £23,000 per year in their early 20s, rising to the equivalent of £34,000 in today’s money by the time of their early 50s, would see their annual repayments rise from £900 to £1,100 with the threshold freeze. The amount they would be expected to repay would rise from £27,000 to £33,000

The think-tank said the best-paid graduates are not expected to be hit so hard because the level at which they repay their debt at a higher interest rate is also expected to be frozen, enabling them to pay it off more quickly.

Freezing the £21,000 earnings threshold for repaying student loans in England would cost graduates an extra £2,800 over 30 years, the Sutton Trust warns.

The study calculates that the overall extra repayment for a typical borrower taking out a loan of £36,000 over three years would rise by £2,800 over 30 years - up from £30,650 to £33,400.

It calculates that if the £21,000 threshold was not frozen, the average male who borrowed £36,000 over three years would pay back £34,900 over 30 years; the average female would pay £26,400.
However, if the five-year repayment threshold freeze came into force, a typical male borrower would pay £37,100 (£2,200 more) over 30 years, while the typical female borrower would repay £29,700 (£3,300 more).

The Trust says women would be more affected than men, while those from poor backgrounds would be hit hardest.