For many students in the UK their only option is to fund their studies with student loans. A company has been set up specifically for this reason and is logically called the Student Loan Company.
Now that students do not get grants and have to pay their own tuition fees, a change which has only happened in the past few years, most students end up in a significant amount of debt by the time they graduate.
The interest rates on these loans are very high and are not set to make a huge profit but purely to cover the interest rate on the open market. In addition to this, the repayments are not due until the borrower is earning a set salary. Once a year the Student Loan Company contact all of their borrowers and inform them of the minimum salary requirement in order to be eligible to start making loan repayments. The borrower then states their income and has to provide proof of it by way of wage slips covering the previous three months. The Student Loan Company then assess whether they are required to make repayments or not and if they arent the loan is deferred for another year and the cycle repeats itself. The beauty of this system is that all of the loans held by...