Sign the Petition to Stop the Student Loan Scam
Stuart Anderson MP has launched a petition to stop the student loan scam.
- The Conservatives would create a hundred thousand fully-funded apprenticeship opportunities.
- Graduates would save tens of thousands of pounds as interest on student debate scrapped.
- Young people starting their first job would save the first £5,000 on their National Insurance payments.
Stuart Anderson MP said:
"Young people in South Shropshire are working hard but finding that the system isn't working for them. Youth unemployment has reached a decade high, while graduate recruitment has fallen, and too many young people are moving from education onto welfare. Students are working hard to get a degree and a job, only to be hammered with an endless cycle of debt. The Conservatives’ New Deal for young people will create a hundred thousand fully-funded apprenticeship opportunities for 18 to 21 year olds, save graduates tens of thousands of pounds on Student Loan repayments, and introduce a First Jobs Bonus - helping young people to save £5,000 for a deposit on their first home or for the future."
Stuart Anderson MP has thrown his support behind a new deal to support young people in South Children, as youth unemployment climbs to its highest in a decade. Almost a million young people across the country are not in education, employment, or training.
Labour has raised annual tuition fees by 3.1 per cent to £9,535. At the moment, graduates need to earn more than £66,000 a year just to keep pace with the interest on their student loans. Graduates have seen their balances rise even while making repayments. 5.8 million people took out a Plan 2 Student Loan between 2012 and 2023. Each year, these loans balloon as they are uprated in line with inflation plus a further 3% interest. This has become a burden for those who are paying it back every month, only to see the debt rise anyway year on year. The Conservatives would abolish real interest rates on Plan 2 Student Loans, ensuring balances never rise faster than RPI inflation. This will help millions of graduates who started courses after September 2012. A graduate with £40,000 of student debt on a salary of £50,000 would save £26,00 in lifetime repayments - and would clear their loan five years earlier than under the current system.
Each year, 400,000 young people report an interest in starting an apprenticeship. However, only 90,000 of start one. This compares to 470,000 who start a course at university each year. While university places are not capped, apprenticeship spending is capped and has been fully spent in recent years. To give young people a real choice, the Conservatives would introduce an Apprenticeships Guarantee by lifting the funding cap. This will ensure that employers have fully-funded access to training and college places for every eligible apprentice they recruit, helping 100,000 extra young people into work every year. The Conservatives would also give businesses a £5,000 incentive payment for each British apprentice aged 18 to 21 they take on. The new Business Rebate for Investment in Training and Skills (BRITS) scheme will give businesses a real incentive to take on young people by lowering the cost of hiring and training.
Additionally, the Conservatives would introduce a First Jobs Bonus. The first £5,000 of National Insurance paid by any British citizen starting their first full-time job will be placed into a personal savings account, earmarked for a first-home deposit or future savings.
