Quote:
Originally Posted by Ignitionnet
That's ignoring the policy as a whole. A far better policy, in my opinion, would be to spend a couple of hundred million a year educating potential HE students on the particulars of student finance, alongside lowering the interest rate on the loans somewhat, perhaps to match the cost to the government of funding them, so perhaps based on the 10 year gilt rate.
This is a really lame attempt at a bribe for the youth vote... the youth that would largely have voted Labour anyway.
Our politicians are, by and large, truly pathetic.
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Like the Conservatives offering more bribes to pensioners I am guessing the idea is to get their 'base' to turn out.
The better policy would have been to introduce a graduate tax that's payable over a certain income post graduation. This is all the student loan is now anyway. The funding is a red-herring in my opinion as the particulars of how the loan is paid back means that many won't ever replay the full loan anyway. You pay 9% on incomes over £21,000 and after 30 years any remaining debt is written off. Most are not projected to pay it all back.
So the Labour policy is rubbish anyway as it works out making little difference to students unless they're paying it off as a lump sum or will have a big enough income post graduation to pay it off within the 30 year time frame.
The amount for the treasury probably balances out but Labour have also increased the maintenance grant so overall this will probably be more expensive. The expansion of the maintenance grant however is a much more morally defensible policy and one which will help students.