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    I discorsi scolastici “fuorvianti” paragonavano i prestiti studenteschi ai contratti telefonici da £ 30

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    17 commenti

    1. Automatedluxury on

      This has been going on since the loan system came in.

      The way my loan was explained to me as a naive 17 year old sticks in my mind because the guy was a classic smarmy salesman selling bullshit. Told us we would never notice the payments, it would be quick to pay off, barely any interest. I didn’t have the life experience to recognise the type of sell at the time, and none of what he said was accurate at all.

      My loan wasn’t even that high value compared to the ones that came a few years after but it’s still a notable expense 20 years later. When you compare it to people being upsold shite protection plans and the like it seems odd how little attention the student loan system gets.

    2. vaska00762 on

      Given that the Student Loans Company is 100% owned by Central Government and the three Devolved Governments, I think the point was to not dissuade kids from working towards university.

      If there was a massive decline in the number of undergrad students, it’d not just hurt the entire higher education system, but it’d have a knock-on effect on Sixth Form in schools and colleges.

      If education became the preserve of the top 10%, places like Spain and Italy would be able to out compete the UK on educated workforces.

    3. X-Potion on

      I think this has been going on for a long time. I took out a Plan 1 loan. I distinctly remember that during a talk about student loans our Head of Sixth Form told us that the loans didn’t even accrue interest! Almost everyone in the room took that at face value. Why wouldn’t we? This was a trusted professional who liked to remind us of her academic credentials. She’d know better than a rag tag group of teens. The rest of the staff subsequently told us the same thing if we had any further questions.

      Of course they accrued interest. They did from the moment you started studying.

      A pretty expensive introduction to “always read and understand what you sign”.

    4. r_mutt69 on

      This line lasted as well as the ‘you won’t have a calculator in your pocket all the time’ line. Bitch please, I have one on my watch

    5. o0SETH0o on

      There is a such an easy solution to the University loan issue.

      Stop interest and make it a fixed percentage fee.

      Let’s say 20%, even 30%. What you owe + 20/30%. This amount never changes. Simple. You have one fixed total. Sorted.

      Loan company gets money, you get a degree and no stress. Simple.

    6. CodeGrumpyGrey on

      This lines up with what I remember being told about plan 1 loans around 2006. I’m on track to finish paying my loans off in the next couple of years – just in before they get written off. I’m not sure how plan 2 was ever anything but a lie. The chance of paying them off is effectively zero and it’s intentional. 

    7. seklas1 on

      When I was in school in 2015, they said “it’s just like having a £40 a month phone contract” (so clearly the inflation has hit even the recruitment’s fluff textbooks).😅

      Although it was also said that the loan is for 30 years. It’s the best loan I’ll ever get as I won’t have to repay if I make under the threshold. So they didn’t mislead or lie, they’ve never mentioned what happens if I was on the bracket that was likely to repay the loan. It was implied that the loan is for 30 years, end of.

    8. AllRedLine on

      I went to uni for my undergrad 2014-2017, so I’m plan 2.

      I specifically and vividly remember reps from the SLC coming to my 6th form and outright and unambiguously telling us the loans were interest-free and would not in any way effect your ability to take a mortgage in the future.

      Luckily, our headteacher was also in the room and once they’d left, he just straight up told us they were lying. That’s why I remember it so clearly.

    9. PolarLocalCallingSvc on

      Of course.

      And Martin Lewis, who I usually have a lot of time for, was part of the problem. He went around saying don’t think of it as a loan, it’s not normal debt etc. He’s now running round on damage control mode trying to get the government to not retrospectively alter the terms of the loans which is actually just a stealth tax on graduates. Because if the government don’t reverse this decision, he’s on the hook for selling all the positives of the Plan 2 loan regime back when he joined the taskforce in 2011. You’ll pay less per month he said (not true for many as Plan 1 holders had a greater chance of paying it off and therefore paying £0/month earlier), “good debt” he said, “cheapest long term debt you’ll ever get” he said.

      I have a lot of respect for the guy but the absence of him standing up and saying you know what I called this one wrong has really taken a hit in my books.

    10. RJK- on

      This is slowly starting to spiral into an mis-selling scandal worse than the recent bank ones. Keep the pressure up, those of you on Plan 2s!

    11. Cautious-Reveal5468 on

      I thank my lucky stars I didn’t believe my teachers in 2011 when they kept giving me that spiel for 2 years. Everyone in sixth form was going to uni and I remember looking around thinking if all of these people are going to uni to get a leg up, then none of us will. Ended up doing an apprenticeship instead.

    12. marianorajoy on

      Apologies as I didn’t do Sixth Form in England.  You’re saying that actual SLC people, sales people, were giving talks to students to take these loans? Why they require these people to come? It’s a government thing. 

    13. AMGitsKriss on

      As I recall, when I was a teenager the closest relatable thing to a recurring bill that was a necessity *was* a phone contract.

      But as a teenager I had absolutely no analogue for how far money would go, or how the value of it would change. My parents paid £50k for the house I grew up in, and the mortgage repayments were a fraction of what I now have to pay for housing.

      I don’t think there is any way we could have had it explained to us in a way that wasn’t somehow problematic.

    14. TavernTurn on

      Back when I was in college, I was told that my student loan would be barely noticeable and I’d likely never pay it back anyway. It would be written off after 30 years. I was lucky enough to be on a Plan 1 loan back when fees were £3000 per year and we felt VERY hard done by then. The same time that Nick Clegg and the Lib Dems were campaigning to abolish uni fees altogether. To give some perspective for those born way after me, I was earning £3.53 per hour in a restaurant as a young worker at this time. £3000 was a lot!

      I got a relatively well paying job in my mid-20’s (£50k+) and certainly did notice the £280 coming out of my pay check every month. Thankfully I managed to pay mine off, but nobody explained to me that the interest rate could change and just how steeply the payments change with salary. There’s also the horror of getting a bonus and having student finance take an enormous chunk out of it 😂 an experience lots of us had!

      I’m not going to pretend like I was struggling – but that’s not the point. They are selling these loans to literal CHILDREN, with no understanding of how money and banking works. I don’t work in an industry related to my degree in any way. Had I known the financial burden I probably would have deferred, worked for a few years and then paid for a degree in a field I really wanted to work in. Very few 16 and 17 year olds know what career they want for the rest of their lives.

      Now teenagers are expected to pay £9000+ per year for their course, private rent which is absolutely extortionate AND fight for minimum wage jobs to support them that are getting harder and harder to get. They have my sympathy – I don’t think I could do it.

    15. meharryp on

      Nice to see this actually getting some recognition. I got the same talk at school (though I think they claimed it’d be £40), and while I don’t regret going to uni at all I’m paying £200 a month now

    16. pjs-1987 on

      I was on Plan 1 but I don’t remember any discussion or explanation of the terms.

      If you didn’t have wealthy parents, it was as simple as “if you want to go to university, you need this loan”.

      Simplify the whole thing and pay for higher education through general taxation like everything else.

    17. GRang3r on

      The interest rate for plan 2 should be the inverse of the triple lock pension. Whatever metric is the lowest interest is it should just track with that. Also the idea that they can change the terms mid way through a loan is a scandal in itself. No bank can alter a loan midway through its term so why is slc special?

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