Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of student loan liabilities on (a) disabled students and (b) students who withdraw from university due to ill health.

Borrowers who are permanently unfit for work because of their disability can apply to the Student Loans Company to have any outstanding loan cancelled.

More broadly, no student loan borrower earning under the repayment threshold is required to make any repayments towards their student loan. Student loan repayments are based on a borrower’s income, not the rate of interest or the amount borrowed. Any outstanding loan, including interest accrued, will be cancelled after the loan term ends. Debt is never passed on to family members or descendants.

An equality impact assessment, including analysis of the impacts of Plan 5 student loans on particular protected groups, was produced and published in February 2022 and can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/higher-education-reform-equality-impact-assessment.