A Treasury Select Committee has announced an inquiry into student loans.

It comes after Rachel Reeves announced a freeze on repayment thresholds, meaning more

graduates will start repaying once they earn just over the living wage.

It's an issue that doesn't just affect today's students and graduates, but is increasingly

becoming a political issue that government cannot ignore.

I'm Tom McTaghan, this is Daily Politics from the New Statesman, and I'm delighted to be

joined by Rachel Conliff. So, Rachel, tell us about what has been announced on student loans,

because it both feels kind of significant, and then I'm trying to figure out how significant

it actually is. Well, it's got onto the parliamentary agenda, I think, is the way of looking at it.

The Treasury Select Committee has opened an inquiry into student loans and the overall

fairness of the system.

So the first thing to say to all our listeners and watches is you can go and submit

your own experiences and thoughts as part of this survey if you're over 16,

whether you have a student loan or not until the 14th of April.

Everyone should do that because this is the way for MPs to gather evidence about how the system works,

the impact that it's having on people and how the public feel about it.

There are about, I think it's about 15 questions that relate to

everything from the interest rate, the terms of the loan, whether it's right for the government

to be able to retrospectively make changes, and then the overall issue of marginal tax rates

and the intergenerational fairness of the system. So go fill in the survey.

Well, it is an important moment then because it's the start of something, at least. It's a kind

of indication that the unfairness, the perceived unfairness, whatever it is, has reached Parliament.

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