Highest student loan debt made public after freedom of information request - as numbers 'truly alarming'
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The highest outstanding student debt in the UK has topped more than £250,000, figures obtained by Money show. One student now owes £252,554, a record high labelled "truly alarming" by the National Union of Students. Meanwhile, the largest cumulative repayment a graduate has made is more than £137,000, while one plan holder has accrued more than £64,000 in interest alone.
And, as of the end of September, more than 2.2 million people had an outstanding loan balance of more than £50,000. It comes 12 years after student loans were tripled in the UK, rising from £3,000 a year to £9,000 under David Cameron's coalition government. The purpose of this was to compensate for an 80% cut to higher education teaching budgets, made at a time when the country was enacting austerity measures to recover from the financial crisis of 2008.
Last month, the new Labour government announced it was reversing the 2017 tuition fee freeze, and from next year it will cost £9,535 a year. Figures seen by the Money blog show that in the past five years, just 5.8% of student loan balances have been paid off in full - and many students, particularly those who owe some of the highest amounts, will never be able to be fully debt-free before the loan is wiped (this happens depending on plan type, but it is usually between 30 and 40 years after graduating).
The highest amount a graduate has repaid is now almost £138,000. Loan Plan 1 is for graduates who attended university before the tuition fee rises (before 2012). Fees tripled for those on Plan 2, which is why they top the tables for the amount owed and interest outstanding.
