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Students are furious over ‘regressive’ plans to make low-earning graduates pay hundreds more back on their loans to boost Treasury coffers.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak is considering lowering the salary threshold for when repayments are triggered from the current £27,295 to £23,000.
It will drag many more graduates into earlier repayments and cause higher earners to pay larger amounts.
The threshold reduction was recommended in the Augar post-18 review of education funding and would save the public purse £2billion a year
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) branded it ‘effectively a tax rise’ and said someone on £30,000 would pay £400 more each year.
Anyone starting on £23,000 would repay around £8,000 more over their lifetime, financial experts said.
And with the recently announced 1.25 per cent National Insurance (NI) rise, anyone earning more than the new threshold would have a total marginal tax rate of 42.25 per cent from next April.
Last night the National Union of Students (NUS) slammed the plan as ‘unjust’ and a senior Tory MP said it ignored the fact that universities deliver a ‘half-hearted service’.
The threshold reduction was recommended in the Augar post-18 review of education funding and would save the public purse £2billion a year.
Graduates currently repay 9 per cent of
