The Newsagents podcast is brought to you by HSBC UK commercial banking, opening up a world of opportunity.

This is a global player original podcast. My name is Tom. I'm 22 years old from Manchester and I did

international relations at the University of Birmingham. I left offer 58 grand of debt. How much debt I

owe now is about 57 grand. I'm Amelia. I'm 21. I'm currently studying medicine. I'm in my fourth year

with the interest that starts accumulating from as soon as you do the degree. I'm left with

93,000 pounds of student loan. My name's Campbell. I'm left with £93,000 of student loan.

My name's Campbell. I'm 28 and I did an engineering course at Imperial College London.

From the government, I borrowed 58,000 £5,000. I now owe the government just over £78,000.

My name's Ed and I went to university in 2012 to study economics. I borrowed a total of

£46,000 and I left in 2016 with a debt of £53,500 after interest had been applied.

I now owe £65,000 on an initial £46,000 loan.

These are your voices, quite literally. Our listeners and our viewers who have

flooded us with your stories of the burden on your backs. Your student loans, a de facto third

income tax, only in effect for the young. For those of you not affected, I want you to imagine a loan you've taken

out, but it's like no loan you'll find anywhere else. Imagine a loan where you never know the

final cost. You can't refinance it, you can't escape it, and you're still paying long after the

original sum has doubled or tripled or quadrupled.

Imagine a loan where the government sets the terms.

It can change the terms at any time is both the lender and the rulemaker

and where you have no recourse to alter those rules yourself.

Imagine alone where the interest rate rises faster than your wages,

where you will be paying a fixed proportion of your income,

...