Don’t punish graduates like me by cutting the student loan repayment threshold

It seems that universities and the government can treat young people however they want, with no consequences

‘I personally lost about half of my university experience to lockdown and the pandemic’ (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The government is wrong to raid young people and new graduates for more money by reducing the student loan repayment threshold from over £27,000, to a figure that could be as low as £20,000.

Though the move could save the treasury as much as £2bn a year, it would disadvantage the lowest earners in society – taking money from those who need it most. The class of Covid has been hit hard by this pandemic and cannot (quite literally) afford to be punished by the government as well.

The Conservatives have always allegedly been the party of low taxation, but for a young person in 2021, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Boris Johnson is making young people pick up the bill for the government’s unfunded Covid spending. The national insurance rise was the first raid on the young. Whilst I thought this tax was completely unfair, lowering the student loan repayment threshold would be so much crueller and is a step too far .

I personally lost about half of my university experience to lockdown and the pandemic. Covid-19 ravaged my generation and ruined university for thousands of students. As was widely reported, online learning at degree level was a poor replacement for the real thing, and I along with countless others feel let down by the education system.

The reality of my university experience was being locked in my room for about 90 per cent of the day – learning from behind a computer screen. I had no access to facilities like the library for over 18 months. All society gatherings and student socials were cancelled. Campus was a ghost town. It was hardly an experience worth paying for at all.

I wrote my entire dissertation without once meeting my tutor in person. I was forced to write essays in my second and third year on books I had never spoken about in person. I wasn’t and still am not allowed to collect my degree certificate.

To now charge my generation even more for their joke of an education is utterly farcical. If anything, universities owe me and thousands of others a full refund for failing to provide us with a decent university experience. Many – including myself – vehemently campaigned for some level of reimbursement and were denied this over and over again. It seems that universities and the government can treat young people however they want, with no consequences.

Given this, is it any wonder that young people are red-eyed with rage at the thought of being charged an additional £400 per year for student loan repayments – especially when we barely received an education. We’re angry and we have every right to be.

On top of that, interest rates remain extortionately high. It is frankly morally unacceptable that the interest rate charged on loans is up to 6 per cent when we have interest rates at 0.1 per cent. Consequently, 83 per cent of students will never pay back their student loan, and to them the student loan burden feels like an endless black hole of debt.

Head of the education select committee, Rob Halfon, admitted: “I worry that the cart is being put before the horse. There needs to be a proper contract between students and universities.” He’s absolutely right. Universities have taken students for a ride – especially in the last 18 months. They have offered an inadequate service and still got paid for it.

Whilst it’s good to see some level of support for students from people like Rob Halfon, it’s ridiculous that lowering the student loan threshold was ever on the table. New grads cannot afford to take on this additional cost.

The price of living in London is already verging on unaffordable for those on a graduate salary. To charge those earning the least this completely avoidable tax will sting graduates who have already given up so much.

Young people sacrificed everything for the older generations during this pandemic. We stopped seeing friends and family, stopped going to schools and universities and stopped enjoying life, all to protect the most vulnerable in society. Now, it feels like all of that sacrifice is being thrown in the faces of the young who are being taxed into oblivion to yet again support the old.

This government should stop punishing young people for their reckless spending during the pandemic. The young should not be made to pay, both figuratively and literally, for Boris Johnson’s mistakes.