An outburst.
Imagine you become very ill when you are 18, go into hospital and have a few operations and some treatment which costs the NHS approximately £27,000. Operations can cost several thousand, so this is quite possible. Obviously you, as the patient, pay nothing.
In the 30 years after your treatment, you work and pay National Insurance, which is a substantial chunk of your wage (for someone on £15,000 p/a, about £70 p/m) which contributes to the NHS, but doesn’t pay off the £27,000 (although it does come close). Instead, people who earn more than you - some of whom have not cost the NHS anywhere near as much - pay NI which effectively pays off your debt.
Fair? Not particularly. Imagine if you were earning £15,000 and paying nearly 1/15 of your wage for someone else’s operation.
Now I know this doesn’t quite work because NI contributions also go on other things and count towards your pension etc, but you get my point.
Now imagine when you are 18, you go to university and do a degree which costs the government £27,000. You, as the student, pay nothing.
You graduate, get a job paying £15,000 (which many graduates will be lucky to get) and still pay nothing.
Or, you graduate, get a job paying £25,000 (in which case you are really fucking lucky and not anyone that I know) and pay back £30 a month (as was suggested in the HOC and is the current repayment rate of 9% of earnings over the threshold) for 30 years, which is £10,800.
Or, you graduate and get a job paying a lot more than that, in which case your repayments are higher but you are really rich and should STFU because most graduates I know are unemployed, on NMW or just above.
In which scenario do the repayments of your ‘debt’ affect you more? I’m thinking... the first one...
In neither case does a bailiff come and repossess your telly.
Am I talking shit here, or not?
Also I just read this on the BBC website -
The government also assumes the average graduate earning will be almost £100,000 a year - a calculation based on graduate wages having trebled over the past 30 years.
*laughs hysterically* Errr... I’ll be lucky to earn £100,000 over 7 years, actually. WTF? The government are mental.
In the 30 years after your treatment, you work and pay National Insurance, which is a substantial chunk of your wage (for someone on £15,000 p/a, about £70 p/m) which contributes to the NHS, but doesn’t pay off the £27,000 (although it does come close). Instead, people who earn more than you - some of whom have not cost the NHS anywhere near as much - pay NI which effectively pays off your debt.
Fair? Not particularly. Imagine if you were earning £15,000 and paying nearly 1/15 of your wage for someone else’s operation.
Now I know this doesn’t quite work because NI contributions also go on other things and count towards your pension etc, but you get my point.
Now imagine when you are 18, you go to university and do a degree which costs the government £27,000. You, as the student, pay nothing.
You graduate, get a job paying £15,000 (which many graduates will be lucky to get) and still pay nothing.
Or, you graduate, get a job paying £25,000 (in which case you are really fucking lucky and not anyone that I know) and pay back £30 a month (as was suggested in the HOC and is the current repayment rate of 9% of earnings over the threshold) for 30 years, which is £10,800.
Or, you graduate and get a job paying a lot more than that, in which case your repayments are higher but you are really rich and should STFU because most graduates I know are unemployed, on NMW or just above.
In which scenario do the repayments of your ‘debt’ affect you more? I’m thinking... the first one...
In neither case does a bailiff come and repossess your telly.
Am I talking shit here, or not?
Also I just read this on the BBC website -
The government also assumes the average graduate earning will be almost £100,000 a year - a calculation based on graduate wages having trebled over the past 30 years.
*laughs hysterically* Errr... I’ll be lucky to earn £100,000 over 7 years, actually. WTF? The government are mental.