Rachel Reeves blasted by Martin Lewis over latest blunder โ ‘shameful’ | Politics | News
Besieged Chancellor Rachel Reeves has been lambasted for a “truly shameful” tweak which could see graduates stung with paying higher taxes. Money expert Martin Lewis said on the BBC this week that he thought plans to freeze the threshold at which graduates repay their student loans was not โa moral thingโ for Ms Reeves to do.ย
However, the Chancellor fired back saying the student loans system was “reasonable” and that “to be able to bring down NHS waiting lists… that does require putting money in”, adding her job was to get “the balance right, between tax and spending”. Under the Treasury plans announced in November, Ms Reeves said the salary at which Plan 2 student loans must be paid back would be frozen at ยฃ29,385 for three years starting from April 2027. Plan 2 loans cover students who started courses in England and Wales between September 2012 and July 2023.
There are fears a freeze of the threshold would mean more workers earning above it would have to make larger repayments on their student loans than if the thresholds had risen in line with inflation.
Taking to the X platform to share his frustrations omn the policy, LBC presenter Ben Kentish highlighted a quote the Chanceller gave the BBC’s Newsnight programme where she said โTo be able to bring down NHS waiting listsโฆthat does involve (sic) putting money in”.
Responding below Ms Reeves’s quote, Ben blasted: “Reeves is now openly admitting that sheโs using low-earning young graduates as a cash cow and charging them crazy amounts of interest as a sneaky way of raising billions of pounds for the exchequer.
He signed off his post the damning words “Truly shameful”.
Speaking on the BBC’s Newsnight programme this week, Martin Lewis urged Ms Reeves to “please have a rethink” of the policy and to not treat student loans as a tax.
He told Newsnight: “It’s a contract that the government signed with young people who had not been given any education on these loans.
“I do not think it is a moral thing for you to do to be freezing the repayment threshold in this way.”
