‘It’s insulting’: Uni of Birmingham grad says loan rises £4k yearly despite £2k repayments

A Manchester woman says her student loan debt rises by £2,000 every year, despite her paying £2,000 off annually.

Reef Pearson, who works in Ancoats, said a £4,000 annual increase means that her student loan debt is always rising.

Reef graduated from the University of Birmingham in 2019 with a degree in business and communications – and over £50,000 in debt.

Reef graduated in 2019, via SWNS

She covered her university tuition and living costs with a plan two loan from Student Finance England (SFE).

The year after she graduated, Reef owed SFE £50,807.59.

She secured her first graduate job over four years after graduating after working minimum wage jobs post-graduation. Her first non-minimum wage job, as an SEO manager earning £40,000 per year, meant she began paying off her loan from 2024.

Due to interest rates, for every £2,000 she pays off, an extra £2,000 is added to her debt.

In 2024, Reef paid off £1,647.

The interest added to her debt totalled £3,967.71.

In 2025, she paid a similar £1,963, while accumulating £4,270 in debt.

Reef now works as an SEO manager in Ancoats, Manchester, via SWNS

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Reef called it “insulting” that she wasn’t seeing her debt go down despite paying it off and being on a “decent wage.”

“When I looked through my statements, I thought ‘God, is that even right?'” Reef told SWNS.

“It’s so insulting to log in, see you’re paying it off, but at a rate that doesn’t even see the figure go down.

“And I’m aware I’m on a decent wage. If this is happening to me, what on earth is happening with other people?”

The graduate said the student loans system “feels like a scam.”

“The whole concept of young people being told by the government that this is the way into education – and find[ing] out later they charge you double interest. It feels like I’m throwing money into an abyss.”

Reef has now warned her siblings to consider options outside of university – believing that the message she was given in sixth form was “it’s fine, your debt will be wiped after 30 years.”

“At 18, anything that has that kind of government stamp on it, you have trust in it, you think they’ll give you a good deal.

“It never crossed my mind there would be an interest rate like this.

Featured image via SWNS and Canva

The Department of Education was approached for comment.