Student Debt

EDM number 625 in 1991-92, proposed by Bill Michie on 05/02/1992.

That this House notes with concern the Sheffield University students' survey highlighting the alarming level of debt facing students following government changes to the grants system and the withdrawal of entitlement to benefits, which finds that nearly 90 per cent. of students questioned in the survey were in debt at the end of October 1991, a figure not only worrying because of size but the time in question, namely 31st October, which is after the majority of students deposited their grant cheques, and shows that levels of debt were also high with 18.5 per cent., having debts over ú1,000; and further that with 57.1 per cent. of respondents to the survey intending to apply for a top-up loan in the current year and 42.2 per cent. intending to apply to the Access Fund, applications showed a significant increase from last year with 12.7 per cent. more students indicating they would be applying for a loan, and an even greater proportion, 15.5 per cent. stating they would be applying to the Access Fund than had applied in the previous year, with 44 per cent. of those respondents receiving a local education authority mandatory award not receiving the full parental contribution; further notes the particular problems faced by students on leave of absence with no income, as they are not entitled to grants, student loans or social security benefits; and calls on the Government to review urgently the situation and to unfreeze the student grant, to re-establish student eligibility to income support, housing and unemployment benefit and to allow students on leave of absence to claim social security benefits.

This motion has been signed by a total of 81 MPs.