Student Loans

[John Knight]

To anyone who has a student loan please read on…



For most unsuspecting graduates who are paying back their student loans, the Inland Revenue takes payments directly from your employer in the same way as they take tax.



I.e. the more you earn the more you pay, this includes bonuses etc.



However after taking monthly amounts the inland revenue does not pay this directly to the student loan company, instead they wait until the end of the financial year in April and then pay the entire year off to student loans. The effect of this is that the Inland Revenue hold on to your monthly payments for up to a year earning them-selves interest. During the same period, because student loans have not received these funds, they in turn charge the graduate interest on the outstanding amount even though it has been paid to the Inland Revenue.

The bottom line is that for those in this position we pay interest to student loans on money which has been taken from our accounts which the Inland Revenue keeps and earns interest on.



Personally I didn't sign up for this and it makes me very mad!


As a start I strongly suggest you sign up to the on line petition below. I am looking into the legality of what is being done to us as I can see no other description for this other than theft.

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Student-loans/

Sign up now and join the fight. Send this to everyone!


I will be forwarding dates for the march on Parliament!

[Fez]

money-grabbing thieving bastards - and i don't much care for the inland revenue either

[Mike]

The petition has been signed duely. The robbing gits. . . . .

On a plus side a person on the train reminded me that Income Tax was raised in the Napoleonic Wars to fund the fighting. Apparently we are still paying to fund the war in France. . . .

[johnriley1uk]

Yes, it was introduced as a "temporary measure" and we can believe what governments tell us, can't we?

[mr_e]

Hmm...am I the only person who was quite happy with the government response that appears before you fill your details in on the petition? I suppose I'm used to unclear stuff like that, working for the government myself an' all.

[BarcelonAl]

Signed and sent to a bunch of friends...money grabbing barstewards.

[Mike]

Hmm...am I the only person who was quite happy with the government response that appears before you fill your details in on the petition? I suppose I'm used to unclear stuff like that, working for the government myself an' all.

Why would you be happy when the Student Loan company is a government financed organisation? Commercial loans are calculated on a daily basis, this is not a difficult concept for them to implement. . . .

[John Knight]

It is just another example of the goverment using the tax system to extract every extra penny they can without people finding out.

Another fantastic example includes VAT on petrol. This clever little scam means we actually pay tax on tax. If a litre of unleaded petrol costs 85p, 21.7p will be the production costs and profit, around 51p will be fuel duty and the 12.5p will be VAT on top of all that. Therefore about 9p of 12.5p of VAT you pay is a tax on the fuel duty.

[mr_e]

Commercial loans are calculated on a daily basis, this is not a difficult concept for them to implement. . . .

The government response used the "split into twelve months" example because that's how often it's deducted from most people's wages, but does state interest is calculated daily...but retrospectively at the end of the year. Bold text is mine here:

The total annual repayment received from each borrower is credited to their account as twelve equal monthly payments in the year they were made, and the interest on the remaining balance is calculated on a daily basis each month to match.

I'm worried I'm missing something here (not that I'm paying it back yet, anyways).

[Mike]

Another fantastic example includes VAT on petrol. This clever little scam means we actually pay tax on tax. If a litre of unleaded petrol costs 85p, 21.7p will be the production costs and profit, around 51p will be fuel duty and the 12.5p will be VAT on top of all that. Therefore about 9p of 12.5p of VAT you pay is a tax on the fuel duty.

Why does this not surprise me? It is because a government will be trying to get as much as possible out of people and will push for what they can afford. It is then wasted on stupid things. . . . it is such a shame.

[John Knight]

I couldn't agree more

[Mike]

Universities want to charge between £4,000 and £20,000 per year. This will increase student debt massively and in such times it would be shocking to actually implement this. I would prefer a more honest Graduate Tax that will help people who do well from their university education help to support the education of the next generation.

The downside of any Taxation or Fee's (in this case) is that once they are in, they stay and they go up and the article above demonstrates this perfectly.