Petition calls on government to finally stop basing loans on parental income

A petition has been created calling on the government to stop student finance being based on parental income.

The petition currently has just over 2,000 signatures, but needs 10,000 signatures to gain a response from the government and 100,000 to be considered for a debate in parliament.

At the moment, student finance is worked out based on parental income, with those with higher income getting a lower loan than those with a lower income. It is designed to give poorer students access to higher education.

But now some are arguing it can be unfair on students with higher parental income who are expected to rely on parents for additional support, or fit part-time work around their studies.

Will there be more scenes like this to get the government to change their stance?

Describing his reasons why he started created petition, Karl Mooney said on the petition: “Student finance is a joke on the way they assess how much money each student gets. They base it on how much your family earns. But myself and others fend for ourselves.

“We don’t rely on our parents for financial help. Also at the end of our courses, we are the ones paying it back, not our parents.”

We spoke to Shannon Louise Rodgers, a sixth former applying to university this year, who added: “It’s not fair that it’s based on our parents’ income, when we are going to be moving away from our parents.

“It doesn’t really affect me as much, but when I have friends who are applying who won’t get enough to even cover rent, it just doesn’t seem fair.”

Leeds second year, Caitlyn Fleming said she signed the petition. She told The Tab: “It’s not fair that some people get enough money to buy cars and holidays when there are people struggling to buy shopping.

“From personal experience, I’ve been in that very situation. Having the lowest student loan but it still not covering the rent of the cheapest halls of residence and having to find part-time work to get by.

“At the end of the day, it’s not our parents who are loaded with the burden of our graduate debt. Why can’t we get a higher loan if we want it? After all it’s us paying for our time at uni.”

You can sign the petition here, but how much is it really going to do?