Five things EVERYONE should know about student finance
Ignore everything you've read in the papers. Ignore the political spittle that flies across Parliament. And in some cases, ignore what parents tell you too. There are more myths and misunderstandings about student finance than any other subject (my polite way of saying there's a lot of bull spoken). So in this blog is my updated 2021/22 version of the must knows, with links to far more info.
Martin Lewis VIDEO: Should you pay off your Plan 1 student loan?
If you started university between 1998 and 2011 in England or Wales, or since 1998 in Scotland and Northern Ireland, you'll have a Plan 1 student loan. While much is written about whether those with savings should overpay the current English Plan 2 student loans, there's little out there about Plan 1. I wanted to change that, so here's a video explaining how to decide...
How much the Govt expects you to give your children for university
Update Note 25 May 2017: The ready reckoners below have been updated with the new 2017/2018 living loan amounts. Also since first writing this blog, and seeing the strength of feeling it attracted, I have written an open letter to the Uni Minister asking him to start telling people about this. Yet sadly received his no we won’t...
Martin Lewis: Should I overpay my student loan?
Beware student loan statements, they're dangerous and misleading. I wish I could tell you to rip 'em up without looking at them, but occasionally there's practical info you need. Over five million uni leavers still have outstanding loans. Many panic seeing £100s interest added each month – a financial canker that's led some into making catastrophic decisions.
Martin Lewis: Why cutting tuition fees bizarrely risks hurting not helping most students
The news again has been full of talk about cutting English tuition fees from £9,250 to, say, £6,000. While psychologically attractive – as it reduces the perceived ‘debt’ – the practical impact is to take money off universities, risking the quality of education, and handing it to very high-earning graduates. I bashed out this explanation on my...
Warning: Parents with 2+ children who’ll go to uni, SAVE NOW, the system’s biased against you
The entire premise of our current student finance system is supposed to be “you don’t need cash to pay upfront to go to university!” Yet these days that’s simply not true. Many parents, especially those with more than one child, will need a war chest of possibly £10,000s. This isn’t about tuition fees. University fees are automatically...
When will your student loan be written off?
It’s a question I’m asked all the time. Many know that current students no longer need to repay their loans 30 years after the April following graduation, yet for those who started university before 2012, there are a variety of options. This information has been a long-term part of my Should I repay my student loan? guide (where...
Is your student loan being sold? The answers we must get from the Government…
If you started university between 1998 and 2012, the Government plans to sell your student loan to the City. If you started in 2012 or beyond, chances are the same will happen to you. If you went before 1998 then your loan has already been sold, and you probably know there were substantial problems. The House of Lords’...
Uni Minister Jo Johnson says NO to my letter asking ‘please be honest & transparent about the parental contribution’
The amount of the living loan that students aged under 25 get when they go to university is dictated by a means test of their PARENTS’ income. A reduction in the living loan starts for students from families with incomes of just £25,000/yr and the amount received can be halved for those whose parents earn £60,000. In...
Autumn Statement Submission 1: Unfreeze the student loan repayment threshold, stop the retrospective hike
On 23 November the new Chancellor Phillip Hammond, will present his first Autumn Statement – it’s likely to contain a range of major policy announcements. As always the Treasury has invited submissions, and this year MSE and I felt it was time to take them up on the offer – we’ve submitted two. Here’s the first (the second...
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