Debt is key to rise in student suicides
A student in a library [Image: Photofusion/UIG via Getty Images].
This is why Labour was right to say it would cancel student fees in its election campaign; this is why Jeremy Corbyn wanted to find a way to cancel student debt.
A record number of students killed themselves in 2015, with debt as the main contributing factor.
Don’t forget the interest rate on student loans is now 6.1 per cent – 24 times the Bank of England base rate.
Interest is charged from the moment the loan is taken out, rather than at the end of the course, so students starting this October will have accrued around £6,000 of interest before they even graduate.
They don’t start paying back the money until they start earning more than £21,000 per year, and the debt is written off after 30 years.
But according to City A.M., “77 per cent of students on this scheme will not earn enough in their lifetimes to repay the full amount.
“A student starting this September on a three year course would end up accruing over £108,000 of interest on a £27,750 loan before it is written off.”
So students at college now may never pay off their debt.
A whole lifetime in debt after working to improve your life chances? No wonder the student suicide rate is increasing.
A growing number of undergraduates are reporting mental health problems, according to a report that shows a record number of students have killed themselves in recent years.
The scale of the mental health crisis at UK universities is revealed in a study by the IPPR thinktank. It shows that the number of students who disclosed a mental health problem in their first year rose fivefold to reach 15,395 in a decade.
Analysts also found that a record 134 students killed themselves in 2015. In the same year a record number of students with mental health problems dropped out of university.
Experts put the rise down to growing pressure on students who leave university with huge debt, as well as increased awareness – meaning more people are reporting problems.
Source: Suicide is at record level among students at UK universities, study finds | Education | The Guardian
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Personally, I firmly believe the whole idea behind this nasty Tory plan is to deter young people from working class backgrounds from going into higher education. They don’t want a well-educated and well-informed population. It helps them to keep power and wealth in the hands of themselves and their unpleasant chums.