students

Even less chance of getting our rural student boomerangers out of the family home methinks….This story on a new stealth tax style approach tells us of plans to make students repay more of their loans more rapidly

Thanks goes to Labour’s Valerie Vaz, MP for Walsall South, who managed to secure the debate after coming face-to-face with Universities Minister, Jo Johnson, in the House of Commons two weeks ago. She told Mr Johnson the Government’s own figures on the repayments “show the inequity” of the change.

Mrs Vaz said: “The new scheme is far from progressive, as some ministers claimed. Graduates earning £21,000 to £30,000 will have to pay £6,100 more, those earning over £40,000 will pay only £400 extra, and those on £50,000 will pay only £200.”

The issue goes back to 2010 when the Government had promised that, from April 2017, the loans repayment threshold would be upped each year with average earnings. However, by changing it last autumn – without asking Parliament and in the face of mass public opposition – more than two million graduates will now be paying back more each year.

Prior to making the controversial U-turn, the Government had opened a consultation where an overwhelming 84 per cent of respondents were against the freeze. Despite this, the changes were implemented anyway.