Sir, I left university with an MA and £18,000 of debt, despite a far from extravagant student lifestyle and working throughout my degree in order to fund my studies. Three years later I work and live in London.
Since I’ve been in full-time employment, the amount of money the Student Loans Company has deducted from my salary has increased considerably. Yet when I get my annual statement, my overall debt has barely shrunk. This month £124 was deducted from my salary to repay a loan that, at this rate, will take me more than 20 years to clear.
In the face of so much debt, I have tried to be responsible in other areas of my finances, and have both a pension and an interest-only mortgage. The payments for the latter have increased by £150 per month, and are due to keep rising. There is only so far that a graduate salary will stretch.
I got a degree and I got a graduate-level job. But where did this really get me?
V. R. CAMPBELL GRAY, London SE12
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Sir, HM Revenue & Customs are reported to be seeking powers to extract funds from taxpayers’ bank accounts without going to court first. The given reason is that access to the courts is bureaucratic and expensive.
If this power is granted to the Revenue, what is to stop similar powers being given to local authorities for the collection of council tax or any other revenue? What about extending the powers to the public utilities or even further? Where would we stand vis-a-vis the revenue collectors in the rest of the EU with whom we have bilateral agreements? What about the US, which already seems to have preferential arrangeents in respect of extradition?
These powers do not seem to be in line with the new Prime Minister’s apparent attempts to hand power back to the citizens of this country.
He has only been out of the Chancellorship of the Exchequer for six days: was he preparing the announcement of these new prospective Revenue powers before he left and, if so, what weight can we give to his plans to devolve power?
No. These powers far exceed those that are acceptable in civilised society, and we should hear no more of them. The way to solve the Revenue’s problem is to make access to the courts for simple debt collection less bureaucratic and less expensive.
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J. KERR, Newnham, Gloucs
Sir, Each quarter-point per cent rise in the bank rate is an admission that the previous adjustment was too little. The hope that consumers will react to the threat of tiny future rises is surely proven wrong by now. The Bank of England needs to be bold to be effective, as the national addiction to indebtedness has blunted financial common sense.
DUNCAN HEENAN, Niton, Isle of Wight
Sir, You report (July 7) that people who inform on tax cheats in Australia are offered cash benefits. As a former director in the Australian Taxation Office, I can assure you that this is not the case, and never has been. It is not the Australian way.
CHRISTOPHER SONTER, Saffron Walden, Essex
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Sir, I understand savers outnumber borrowers by seven to one. But today (July 6) The Times devoted three pages to covering a quarter-point rise in base rates without a single reference to savers. Is this because most journalists are debtors?
ROBIN KNIGHT, London W4