Response to the government’s consultation on freezing the repayment threshold

This briefing note was submitted to The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills public consultation on 14 July 2015.

In the Summer Budget on 8 July 2015, the Chancellor announced plans for several important changes to higher education funding and student support. These reforms are analysed in detail in Britton, Crawford and Dearden (2015).  One of the proposed reforms was a plan to freeze the income threshold above which student loan repayments are made in nominal terms at its current level (£21,000 per year in 2016 prices) for 5 years.  The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills launched a public consultation regarding the proposal on 22 July 2015. This short note extends the work of Britton, Crawford and Dearden (2015), analysing the likely implications of the proposed changes for students entering university in 2016-17.