Student loan trap

MY 30-YEAR-OLD son has a student loan and his earnings have just reached the threshold when he has to start repaying it.

With the interest rate fixed at 6.3 per cent, many graduates like him will never clear their loan.

They will just keep paying the interest until the day they retire, never reducing the sum borrowed.

In fact, after 20 years of interest payments, they would have paid £ 34,000 without reducing their student debt by one penny. This system is unfair and does nothing to encourage people from poorer backgrounds to go to university.

The Government should consider writing off the debt if someone has paid interest that adds up to more than the original loan.

IAN HARRINGTON, Axminster, Devon.