“Save the Student” is a UK-based website and resource platform aimed at helping students manage their finances effectively. It provides a wide range of information, tips, and tools tailored to the needs of students. The primary focus is on helping students save money, find part-time jobs, manage their student loans, and make informed financial decisions during their studies.
Their election demands
1. Increase maintenance loan to catchup with inflation
- Since 2020, the Maintenance loan in England has been cut in real terms falling short of living costs by £582 per month
- According to the Russell Group, students in 2024/5 will be up to £1900 worse off
2.Reintroduce Maintenance Grants on top of loans
- Since Maintenance Grants were abolished in England in 2016, students from the poorest backgrounds have had to take out the biggest loans and leave uni with more debt.
3.Increase the household income threshold for maintenance loans
- The size of the Maintenance Loan you receive is determined by your household income, with students from the poorest backgrounds receiving the most funding.
- However, the minimum household income threshold (the level at which you receive the maximum loan) has been frozen at £25,000 per year since 2008/09). And thanks to inflation, £25,000 isn’t worth what it was 16 years ago – a family earning £25,000 today is significantly poorer than a family earning £25,000 in 2008.
- To put it another way: each year the government has effectively said you must be poorer and poorer to receive the maximum loan. As a result, the proportion of students receiving this level of funding dropped from 57% in 2012/13 to 38% in 2021/22.
4. Make Student Loan repayments more progressive
- The introduction of the new Student Loan repayment plan in England (Plan 5) has been a regressive move. That’s because, compared to the old system (Plan 2), it will cost the highest-earning graduates less, but lead to low- and middle-earning graduates paying more.
- They believe that it’s only fair that the highest-earning graduates should pay more, as their university education has at least partly helped them to secure a well-paid job.
5. Increase the Postgraduate loan
- As with the undergraduate Maintenance Loan, Postgraduate Loans in England have seen consecutive below-inflation increases, meaning their value has been cut in real terms.
- But the struggle for postgraduate students is even more acute, as the single loan they receive is intended to cover both living costs and tuition fees. With the maximum loan currently around £12,000, and the cost of tuition often equalling or exceeding this, master’s students can be left with little to no funding for living costs.
Of course all these demands would need significant funding but would better the lives of students. There are four more pledges from the organisation on their website covering a fairer deal for renters, increasing minimum wage, reforming the lifetime ISA and offering the Winter Fuel Payment to Students.