Simon Crowther

My 89 year old grandparents win the award for most adorable email ever 🥰🥰🥰 Feeling blessed

I've watched Dan's @dannybster woes over the years with his leasehold flat, where it's clearly been built by laborers with little to no skills. How have we ended up a country where you cannot trust a new build property, especially flats?

The Tories are literally the party who created the student loan rip off. They were literally in power between 2012-2022 when these changes were implemented. The audacity!

@Conservatives YOU.BROUGHT.IT.IN

If you went to university between 2012 and 2022, you're being ripped off.

I cannot see a world in which this doesn’t result in a U-Turn. Unilaterally changing the terms and conditions of a loan post that loan being taken out would be unlawful for any lender in the UK & the government would almost certainly call that what it is, loan sharking. Aside from how horrendous the RPI +3% interest rate is, the changes to the assurances around thresholds is a disgrace. Rethink needed here.

Student loan scandal If it was kept at the same amount you borrowed, in real terms, that would make sense. But the fact they’re using RPI, which is something they refuse to use for pay rises, and then adding 3% on top of that, that’s just incredible thetimes.com/money/family-f…

Imagine if pensioners lost £8 a month in benefits, they’d be starting a movement

@HPG_Farmer @person184257 I’m not aware this has been legally challenged though. The one sided element is certainly open to challenge - but those of us with student loans aren’t the ultra rich, so no one powerful and wealthy has ever taken them on

@person184257 @SCcrowther Except that the UK government often retains the right to change all those rules once you're in Same with most English farm subsidy schemes Utterly one-sided

Martin Lewis has been asleep at the wheel for this on 10 years. Kept telling graduates not to worry as it wipes after 30 years and not to over pay- but now the interest is hitting home he’s more involved. Also telling graduates they may not have a legal angle without being a lawyer?

I was told “borrow money to go to university and you can repay what you owe once you start earning enough”. Not “go to university and later we will feel free to seize as much of your income as we decide to fund the state’s other spending commitments”.

@RhysBenjamin @PolitlcsUK He seems to change his story and advice to stay relevant with whatever is popular at the time and get more PR.

@PolitlcsUK Martin Lewis spent years telling people to not to overpay their loans. That makes sense if you won’t pay it off (ahem) but for those who were going to it made sense to pay more quicker.

🚨 WATCH: Kemi Badenoch clashes with Martin Lewis on her plans for student loans

Sorry, who implemented this in the first place? It’s like someone robbing your house… then turning up years later offering to upgrade the locks. Do me a favour.

Probably the worst thing one generation ever did to another - and all the major political parties supported it!

£99987 and counting: graduates trapped by ballooning student loans. Govt froze repayment threshold. By 2030, likely to be at minimum wage. At the margin graduates pay 20% income tax + 8%NIC +9% repayment. Insane. Loan keeps increasing, if not repaid. theguardian.com/money/2026/feb…

This absolutely shocking scandal has got to end

This for me is the most powerful, truthful and relatable thing I have heard on @bbcquestiontime for years. Me feeling this way (and the fact that it was even necessary for him to say what he did) is a sad reflection of the society we live in now.

Lady in blue, "Will student loans be the next misselling scandal?" #BBCQT Oli Dugmore, "My three year course, £9,000 a year for the tuition, on top of that a maintenance loan, I left uni with £37,500 of debt" "From the day I was charged RPI interest" "Since I went to uni in 2012, the amount of interest I have accrued is £32,000" "Was it missold to me when I was told it would cost me £9,000 a year? Yes" "On top of that its a regressive system" "If you're wealthy enough to pay the fees up front, you don't get charged interest - if you're rich enough you don't pay the same as me" "The government changed the terms of the agreement, I call that loan sharking" Fiona Bruce, "How else would you pay for university?" Oli Dugmore, "How did you guys pay for it?" "The state paid for it, didn't they?" Fiona Bruce, "They did" Oli Dugmore, "Good enough for you, good enough for me?"

Honestly, we haven’t been angry enough. We’ve all just decided to ignore it cause otherwise it’ll stress you out but really we should have been more angry

My generation have been saddled with a 9% graduate tax, further adding to our tax burden, which is at a 70 year high already. From £28k we have a marginal tax rate of 41%, which increases to 51% after £50k, and to 71% after £100k. Its crippling productivity. Why work?

The combined tuition fees of the entire Question Time panel would not cover my cost for 1 year of uni. Is that fair?