Martin Lewis has issued a warning for all hopeful students considering starting university in England this September.
It was announced last year that students starting university courses in 2023/24 will have to begin paying back their loans once they begin earning more than £25,000. This is compared to previous students who only had to begin paying back their loans once they began earning more than £27,295.
According to the government, this means a graduate earning £28,000 would pay back £17 a month. Furthermore, interest rates will be cut for new students so their loan balance rises with the rate of inflation while the repayment period will be extended to 40 years.
However, Mr Lewis has warned that some new students could end up paying double because of this. Writing on Twitter, he explained: "A reminder for anyone STARTING university in Eng from Sept onward, big changes mean most will pay far more for their education - sometimes double. It's because you start repaying on a lower salary, and you repay for 10yrs longer."
Many criticised the new policy as a means to deter younger people from applying to uni. One Twitter user wrote: "Pretty soon only the children of the rich will be able to go to University. The maintenance loan barely covers half the rent for student accommodation so deficit falls to parents!"
However, when the changes was announced in February last year, the then-higher and further education minister Michelle Donelan, said: "This isn’t about pushing people to or away from university – this is about having a system that’s designed to be geared up to the individual."
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