The lifelong burden of student loans that entrench inequality

‘Working-class graduates are still penalised when secure work comes later, paying for longer and carrying the psychological burden of debt through the years when life is most expensive.’ Photograph: Andrew Fox/Alamy

Thanks for your article (Student loans: ‘My debt rose £20,000 to £77,000 even though I’m paying’, 23 January). I began my studies in 1999, part of the New Labour push to widen access to university. Had I known then that I would still be repaying this “loan” for the rest of my working life, I might have thought twice.

The original premise was that student loans were a small, manageable contribution, easily cleared once you entered work. At the time, it was routine for more privileged families to take the low-interest loan even if it wasn’t needed, park it in savings and repay it later in a lump sum. For those of us who relied on the loan simply to live, that option never existed.