Quote:
Originally Posted by Taf
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The system is not designed to ensure these are paid off in the majority of cases. It’s called a student loan system, because what it actually is, is politically unsayable: it is, to all intents and purposes, a graduate tax.
However, it only works as a de facto graduate tax if graduates play along, and live and work in the UK and therefore begin to ‘pay off’ the ‘loan’. If fraudsters take it out and treat it as it’s styled, i.e. a loan, and then take advantage of the super-relaxed repayment regime (the part that gives the lie to it actually being a loan) then it starts to fall apart.
The only way to fix this is to return to a system of fully-financed student loans that are paid monthly during the academic year and then affect the tax code of those who have benefited from them. Payment of the funds must be linked to attendance and progression from one year of study to the next. That wouldn’t eliminate the problem but it would significantly reduce it.