FlikrIn yet another move that’s sure to piss off students everywhere the UK government has made the totally reasonable decision that it can sue students who aren’t able to pay back their loans.
As part of the new repayment strategy for student loans, graduates who avoid paying back their loan installments will be treated as criminals, reports Konbini.
As part of these new sanctions, the government ‘are working to strengthen, and make more apparent, the consequences of breaching the loan repayment terms’.
This will mean implementing a new no nonsense attitude when it comes to graduates who may try and avoid paying back their loans by moving abroad or failing to find employment.
en.wikipedia.orgIn their words they’ll ‘take stronger action to trace borrowers and act to recover money owed where it is clear that they are seeking to avoid repayment.’
This can include ‘levying of penalties, going so far as to track down students who have moved out of the UK, referral to credit reference agencies (potentially ruining their chances of getting other loans and mortgages) and even litigation if they deem it appropriate, which basically means it’s okay to sue students who can’t pay back their loans, for whatever the reason may be.
The new policy, called The Student Loan Repayment For Sustainable Higher Education Strategy, is being headed by universities minister Jo Johnson who wants to protect public money with the move.
Now, of course, paying your loan back, as unfair as you may think it, is the responsible adult thing to do – it’s just one of life’s small discomforts like traffic jams and Justin Bieber. It’s also a good thing to track down those who can afford to pay their loans but have moved away.
The problem is, that this move seems like another governmental attack against the country’s poorest students who may now be at further risk.
Only last year, British students were informed their maintenance grants would be stopped and that those who started degrees after 2012 would have their fees retroactively increased.
All in all, it seems like a bad time to be a student….
More of a concept than a journalist, Tom Percival was forged in the bowels of Salford University from which he emerged grasping a Masters in journalism.
Since then his rise has been described by himself as ‘meteoric’ rising to the esteemed rank of Social Editor at UNILAD as well as working at the BBC, Manchester Evening News, and ITV.
He credits his success to three core techniques, name repetition, personality mirroring, and never breaking off a handshake.