Student Loan Fairness Debated Amid Rising Interest Costs (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: For one year of my degree, one year of study, it cost me the same. Everyone sat here, Oxford, Cambridge, Cambridge, LSE, everything they paid does not cover one year of my tuition. Do you think that's fair? Since I went to uni in 2012, just bear that figure in mind about my debt, £37,500. Since I went to uni in 2012, the amount of interest, I did the sums before I got here, that I have accrued is £32,000. So was it missold to me when I was told it was going to cost me £9,000 a year? Yeah, I'd say so. On top of that, it's a regressive system. So if you're wealthy enough to pay the fees up front, to pay your £27,000, you don't get charged interest. So if you're rich enough, you don't pay the same as me. Is that fair? No, I don't think it is. If you're paid the living wage and you work 40 hours a week for a year, your salary, it's only £500 under the threshold when you start paying it back. So basically, if you have a job, you're going to pay it. It shouldn't be like that. The government changed the terms of the loan that I agreed to. They did it unilaterally. I'd call that loan-sharking.

[00:01:00] Speaker 2: As a government, we've got to try and balance here the fairness of the student loan system and also fairness for taxpayers more generally. So, you know, I understand the point that you were making here about your generation and how tough it is for your generation, house prices being a much bigger ratio against your salary coming in. That's why we are trying to do other things for your generation, for example, building the 1.5 million homes so that house prices aren't unaffordable for you, introducing renters' rights so that you have a better deal when it comes to renting.