The 30-year-old, who works in PR, has two different student loans. The first, for his undergraduate degree in French and International Relations, means he has to pay backTom has a large loan of around £80,000 as well as an extra career development loan he took out to fund his living fees during his masters degree. He says his working class background means he didn’t get much parental support financially, which meant he had to take out a large loan to cover expenses while studying.
“I have friends that have bought or are starting to buy houses, and I’d like to be in that position, but I’m struggling to save at the moment,” he says. If had been increased as previously, people would only start having to make repayments if they were earning more than £31,657 per year. The repayment threshold on masters loans has also remained the same for several years.Matt, who lives in Greater Manchester and works in project support, faced a £1,113 annual bill for his student loan repayments this year after studying for an undergraduate and postgraduate degree.
“A lot of attention is given to tax rises, but with the single person discount my council tax is pretty much the same as my student loan payments. Given that working class students have to get it more debt because of the way maintenance loan works it really does feel we’ve been caught in a trap that richer students avoid entirely,” he adds.
Richard lives in a one-bedroom flat just outside London, which he has bought, and says: “All my spare money is going on making my flat something approaching livable, and I’d be able to pay to do that much more quickly without student loan debt.