The oldest person who still has student loan debt is… 90 years old

The age of the oldest living person with outstanding student debt to pay the Students Loan Company is over 90 years old, a Tab investigation can reveal.

A Freedom of Information Request sent to the SLC confirmed that the individual was over the age of 90, however their specific age could not be revealed.

They told The Tab: “While on the face of it a single age may appear anonymised, we do not consider this data to be truly anonymised.  It may be possible to identify the individual concerned if the requested information was to be disclosed.”

The FOI also revealed that the average age of when individuals fully repay their student loan debt is 32, both overall for all borrowers and also when split by women and men.

The Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) says that, on average, students who graduated in 2020 withdrew £45,060 in loans.

A report conducted by HEPI concluded that the effect of massive debt on students was “draining, weighing them down” and resulting in “anxiety, pressure, worry and dread”.

Claire Challender, a UCL professor and author of the HEPI report, said: “Why burden students psychologically and materially with enormous debts when most will never fully repay them? And is the student loan system and the income it generates for the Treasury really worth the potential long-term consequences for graduates’ welfare, life choices and opportunities – affecting the lives of generations to come?”

The government is currently reviewing the student finance system with results of the Augar review due this year.

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