Faced with unaffordable student loan repayments, many UK graduates on moderate salaries are leaving their jobs, or turning down promotions in sectors plagued by staff shortages, such as teaching and healthcare. Loans totalling as much as £120,000 – many swollen by surging interest rates – are putting them off trying to progress in their careers, people responding to an online callout or explaining their experience in interviews shared with the Observer.
The repayments also made buying a home much harder or impossible, they said, and were affecting their mental health and plans to start a family.
