James Taylor, Birmingham Socialist Students

On top of a cost-of-living crisis now. Students’ futures are of a lifetime of debt. As graduates, money will be taken from our wages monthly, and still the mountain of debt is likely to keep growing.

And to make things worse, in the Autumn Budget, the Labour government froze the threshold at which graduates have to start repaying their student loans. Graduates who make over £28,470, not much over minimum wage, will lose 9% of their income above that to repay student loans.

This is a clear breach of Labour’s 2024 manifesto pledges not to raise taxes on ‘working people’. In fact, this policy is a regressive tax in disguise. Students with wealthier parents can pay tuition fees up front and thereby avoid ballooning interest rates, while working-class students are left with debt for life.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves claims this system is “fair and reasonable”. Is it fair that due to the threshold freezes by 2030, graduates working full time on the minimum wage will have to pay?

This is another in a number of attacks on students by this Labour government. In November 2024 they raised tuition fees from £9,250 to £9,535. Maintenance loans have failed to keep up with inflation, with food prices and especially rent going up. There are profits to be made in charging extortionate rent for sub-par student accommodation.

Universities are increasingly unable to cover their costs, with whole departments being closed around the country. Instead of funding education properly, the government is dipping deeper into the pockets of graduates to put a plaster on the situation.

Successive governments – Labour and Tory – are serving the interests of the capitalist class at the expense of workers and young people. Unsurprisingly, this has made the government deeply unpopular among students, many of whom are looking for a political alternative. Socialist Students fights to build campaigns against university cuts and fee hikes. We will be planning the fightback at our national conference in Manchester on 14 February. If you want to fight for free and fully funded education and to scrap student debt you should attend.