Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 30 May 2025 to Question 50912 on Students: Loans, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of persistent student loan debt on levels of social mobility among (a) graduates from disadvantaged backgrounds and (b) other graduates.

The system is designed to ensure that those who benefit financially from higher education contribute towards the cost of it. This is why repayments are linked to income and not the loan balance, with monthly repayments increasing with borrower income.

Student loans are not like commercial loans, as they carry significant protections for borrowers. Those earning below the repayment threshold repay nothing, and at the end of the loan term, any outstanding debt is cancelled. This subsidy is a conscious investment in the skills capacity, people and economy of this country.

Furthermore, student loan balances do not appear on borrower credit records.

A full equality impact assessment of how student loan reforms may affect graduates, including detail on changes to average lifetime repayments under Plan 5, was produced and published in February 2022 under the previous government and can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/higher-education-reform-equality-impact-assessment.