Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Zarah Sultana and Chris Skidmore

Monday 20th January 2020 Commons Chamber

[Zarah Sultana (Coventry South) (Lab)]

16. What assessment he has made of the effect of the student finance system on students from low-income backgrounds.

[The Minister for Universities, Science, Research and Innovation (Chris Skidmore)]

The current student finance system removes financial barriers to those hoping to study. The Government review support for students annually, and we have recently announced a 2.9% increase to maximum grants and maintenance loans for the 2020-21 academic year. This takes support for the lowest-income students to record levels.

[Zarah Sultana]

In 2010, like thousands of other young people, I argued against the tripling of tuition fees, but the Government ignored us, and I currently have around £50,000 of student debt. I have here my latest student loan statement, which says that the interest added in the past year alone was £2,022.65. Can the Secretary of State look me in the eye and tell me that it is fair that working-class kids who want an education are being forced to take on colossal debt while his Government is led by a man who went from the playing fields of Eton to a free education at Oxford—