Will Uni students heavily in debt vote labour.?

Question

I know numorous such students in debt 12 to £16000. This situation has increased masively since the Labour government ended Grants for living expences. If you were in this position how would you vote

Answer 1

Reckon I must owe £12,000 by now. I think that Labour needs to re-evaluate it's policies on living grants. It is different if you have a good stash to go to uni with or seriously rich parents, bu the avaerage person is in it over their heads. I say grants for those who need it.

Answer 2

Strictly speaking, Labour didn't end grants - they ended in 1990/1991 during a Conservative government which introduced student loans in their place. Transitional arrangements introduced during that time meant that student grants had been frozen for several previous years so that by the time they were phased out a maximum grant was around £2,100 a year (which even in 1990 wasn't much to live on). It was also the conservative government which ended the ability of students to receive housing benefit whlist studying, and income support whilst on holiday from their course.

The New Labour government whilst not re-introducing grants has at least introduced educational maintenance allowances, giving around £30 a week to 18 year olds who continue to higher education. So, whilst grants have gone, some form of support has been re-introduced, for some people. The ones who are hardest done by are those who were caught up in the period around 1999 when tuition fees were introduced on top of loans, but EMAs had yet to be introduced.

What the government forget however is that for mature students, the EMA arrangements don't apply as they are age restricted. So, I suspect there are a number of people who are massively pee'd off with New Labour for their higher educational funding arrangements and the lifetime of indebtedness that this has led to.

Personally however, even though I despise what the government have done in endebting an entire generation I will choose who to vote for on more than one issue. The fact that the New Labour government has doubly penalised the same generation in the changing of pensions is more of an issue. Those with current student debts are paying tax and NI so that the currently retired can continue to receive a pension at age 65, whilst they are being told their own contributions into tax and NI will only allow them to retire at 67/68 and it's likely that the amount received in pensions in the future will be vastly reduced.

Sadly, the demographics and the way in which our population is ageing means that pensioners have a greater political voice than current students and the recently graduated. In simple terms there's more pensioners voting, so the government pays greater attention to their needs and interests. So, strictly speaking, the government is simply responding to what the majority want - a transfer of wealth from one (younger) generation to another (older one).

Have you ever noticed how the government of the day, irrespective of its political makeup, always ensures that general elections are called during university holidays, so that students are at home with their families in an entirely different electoral ward to the one in which they're registered to vote - thus disenfranchsing a large number of students who forget to register for postal votes in time?

As average student indebtedness increases, I suspect that there will come a time within the next three to five years in which calls are made for tax relief to be provided on the repayment of funds to the student loan company and to the banks in the form of graduate loans. That way, individual tax burdens could be reduced during the period of debt repayment. It wouldn't relieve the suffering being experienced, but it would sugar-coat a pill that's currently very bitter indeed to attempt to swallow.

Answer 3

i just finished uni with debts of £12,000. i thought that was bad but if i was starting now it would more like £20,000 with these new tuition fees thats enough to put anyone off. Labour wont get any votes from students or graduates who know what they'll go through, although it don't look like conservatives will be much better. Only answer is to vote for Lib Dems!!

hence why a lot of people dont vote, it'll be crap whatever happens

Answer 4

Absolutely, I believe the situation would be worse under the Tories, who will once again be looking to keep the lower classes in low paid manual jobs, and the rest to have opportunities

Answer 5

tory... labour is a joke! Reason they introduced the child savings account and vouchers is cause they want to introduce american style system in future whereby parents pay for all university fees.

Answer 6

problem with this country is our students are a bunch of scrounging spongers. we should look more towards the usa and make the lazy gets pay for them selves instead of the good old tax payer paying for their beer and dope.