Student loans are 'fair', says Rachel Reeves, amid backlash | LBC

The Chancellor told LBC the student loan system is "fair" despite growing anger over graduates' spiralling debt interest. Rachel Reeves insisted that the whole point of the student loans system, which was changed by the Conservative-Lib Dem government in 2012, was that the more you earn, the more you pay. 5.8 million people who took out a student loan between 2012 and July 2023 are on a Plan 2 repayment plan, which sees interest at RPI inflation - plus up to three percentage points depending on earnings. In contrast, people with loans on ‘Plan 1’ before 2012, pay interest at RPI or the Bank Rate plus one percentage point - whichever is lower. Tuition fees were tripled to around £9,000 at around the same time, meaning most students were forced to take out big loans to fund their higher education - unless they could afford to pay upfront. Lewis Goodall joins Shelagh Fogarty to explain the 'egregiously unfair' system. Listen to the full show on the all-new LBC App: https://app.af.lbc.co.uk/btnc/thenewl... #lewisgoodall #shelaghfogarty #rachelreeves #chancellor #students #studentloans #finance #budget #LBC LBC is the home of live debate around news and current affairs in the UK. Join in the conversation and listen at https://www.lbc.co.uk/ Sign up to LBC’s weekly newsletter here: https://l-bc.co/signup