England's Student Loan Changes Are Classist
The new repayment scheme will make higher education inaccessible to lower income households.
There have been significant changes to the student loan system announced by the government. The first of the alterations includes the lowering of the annual income requirements for loan repayments. The repayment threshold currently stands at £27,295 with the new measures placing it at just £25,000. The time for repayment has also been increased to 40 years, ten years longer than the current period.
Martin Lewis has classed the move as a ‘big increase to the cost of uni’, making the prospect of higher education inaccessible to lower income households.
An Assessment of the changes by the Department for Education has found that students from the Midlands and the North will be left at a disadvantage.
Projections have shown that those who go on to earn £22,000 a year after graduation will now end up paying back more than double what they would have on the previous repayment plan.
Even though students will be made to repay more money, the tuition fees remain frozen at £9,250 a year meaning that funding for institutions won’t increase at all.
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