Student Loan Repayment Plans Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Education
Andy McDonald
Main Page: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough and Thornaby East)Department Debates - View all Andy McDonald's debates with the Department for Education
Student Loan Repayment Plans
Andy McDonald Excerpts(1 day, 6 hours ago)
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Andy McDonald (Middlesbrough and Thornaby East) (Lab)
It is a pleasure, Ms Lewell. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Ilford South (Jas Athwal) for securing this debate. I was a beneficiary of free higher education under Harold Wilson and Jim Callaghan, but I must begin with the stark reality that today’s graduates face. The average debt on graduation in England is around £53,000, and many leave owing £70,000, £80,000 or even £100,000, with postgraduate borrowing included. That is a mortgage-sized burden placed on young adults before they have saved a deposit, started a family or built financial security, and even before repayment thresholds and interest are factored in.
We were warned: plan 2 and plan 5 are not just loans, but lifetime surcharges, and that is because of cumulative political choices: the introduction of fees in 1998, variable fees in 2004, the loan book sale, the high-fee and high-interest plan 2, and now plan 5’s lower thresholds. Higher education is a public good, yet we have built a system that assumes that every degree guarantees high earnings and prices them accordingly, despite the fact that many do not enjoy those earnings. We must rethink, and be honest that a system built over 28 years is now failing.