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Hello, welcome to a special extra podcast all about Plan 2 student loans,

where there is a body of anger growing up around the country,

and there's been much debate and stories covered on this.

Now, Plan 2 student loans are for those from England who started university between the 2012-13 academic year and the 2022-23 academic year, and those from Wales who started university from the 2012-2013 academic year right and up until now.

Much of the anger is about the amount of interest people

are seeing on their statements. In some cases, they're paying off a lot, but still seeing the

total amount that they owe grow. And I get why people are annoyed about it. So what I want to talk

through today is, first of all, I'm going to play you

a Newsnight interview that I did with Victoria Derbyshire on the politics of this, and then we're

going to morph from the political to the practical about what it means for you and what you can

actually do. Now, it's very important to be clear. We're talking only about Plan 2 student loans.

Current English students who've started since 2023 are on Plan 5 loans. Their terms are different. The interest rate is lower,

but they repay at a lower threshold, and they repay for 40 years rather than 30 years. So it's

wiped at a later date. And all that means,

even though the interest rate is lower, the new Plan 5 loans likely mean most students going now

will pay even more back than those on Plan 2. But we've covered that before and we will cover it

again. Today it's on Plan 2. So, as it's the podcast, let's play the theme tune and then we'll go straight

into Victoria Derbyshire from News Night.

Martin Lewis is calling on graduates to write to their MP about their student loans.

The founder of money saving expert knows everything there is to know about this issue.

And it's a good thing because there is a lot of anger among students absorbing the changes announced in the last budget.

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