Lift the £21,000 threshold for paying back student loans, ministers urged after the lowest-earning graduates face huge rise in repayment levels

‘Pressure is mounting on the Government to raise the salary threshold at which graduates pay back their student loans.
MPs from all parties have already called for interest rates on loans – which have rocketed to 6.1 per cent – to be slashed.
Now critics argue that ministers must look again at the £21,000 salary threshold, which has been frozen since 2012. Above this amount, 9 per cent of any income is used to pay off the loan.
The Government had originally promised the earnings threshold level would be ‘uprated annually’ in line with earnings from April 2016 – the point at which the majority of students who began degrees in 2012 would become liable to repay.
But ministers sparked outrage after backtracking in November 2015, freezing the level at £21,000 and forcing more graduates whose salaries exceed this level to repay their loans quicker.’
Read more: Lift the £21,000 threshold for paying back student loans, ministers urged after the lowest-earning graduates face huge rise in repayment levels