Graduate Tax? Seriously?

Vince Cable, and the new Lib-Con government are trying to help us poor, struggling graduates out by taxing us at a higher rate.  How very kind of them!

This new Graduate Tax is supposed to help reduce tuition fees and make life easier.  I fail to see how!

As a graduate of Imaginative Writing at LJMU I have found it difficult to put my new found skills into practice in the world of work.  I'm the first to hold my hands up and admit that my course was a bit of a 'Micky Mouse' degree.  There are few things that you can do with it, unless of course you have become a published author, intend to go into publishing, or you wish to lecture in the same subject.  I wish I could do the first one, publishing doesn't interest me and I can't lecture.

Why can't I lecture?  Or teach English?  Because I've been priced out of the market for further learning due to tuition fees.  I would love to go back to uni to obtain my PGCE so that I could teach primary school, or college students.  But, due to my own selfish desire to set up a home sooner rather than later, I can no longer afford to do this, as I would have to leave work and subsequently risk my mortgage.

"The principle we'd be looking at is the so-called graduate premium, the extra earnings that we have as a result of being a graduate.



"If you're a graduate, on average you earn £100,000 net of tax over your lifetime more than if you're a comparable non-graduate."

Speaking as a graduate who is currently in full time, permanent employment, I have no idea where these figures are coming from.  I work a basic job, for slightly above my £15000 loan repayment threshold.  I have no idea how, over the course of a lifetime, I could earn £100000 more than you're average worker.  As it is, I pay back my loan at the rate of approx. £9 per month.  I don't notice it going, but it does.  A higher rate of tax however, I would notice.  For what it's worth, I already feel that I am taxed too much.

Student loans aren't the only thing to take into consideration.  I graduated with £12000 debt in student loans, but I also graduated with a £3000 student overdraft (Thank you, Santander) that I am still paying off, in chunks of £125 per month, which is 10% of my monthly net earnings.  Taking that into consideration, I could not afford to be taxed at a higher rate than I already am, because I would end up filing for bankruptcy, and becoming just another statistic.

He also said the current system, which did not take into account a graduate's earnings, meant "if you're a school teacher or a youth worker you pay the same amount as if you were a surgeon or a highly-paid commercial lawyer".

This, I fail to see the truth in.  If you are a 'highly paid' anything, you already pay a higher rate of tax.  Loan contributions are altered in accordance with your wage.  For example, on months when I receive a bonus payment in work, my repayments become significantly higher.  The highest having been around the £50 mark.  This system is a lot fairer, as it is linked directly with earnings, not just the fact that you attended university.

Admittedly, yes, some people will earn more.  But the chosen degree route isn't always an indicator of whether or not a job will come of it.  I have friends who are qualified teachers, but work in an office because right now, the job market is so poor that they cannot find work within their chosen subject.  I also have friends who did medical degrees and are suffering from the same problems.  It's unfair to suggest that a higher tax will solve any problem with university fees.

In all, the whole thing looks like another way to price us poor folk out of university.  As I mentioned, I would love nothing more than to go back to university and study for my PGCE, or a Librarianship Masters, but I have been more than priced out of both degree routes. 

They complain that too many people are now applying for university and this is true.  Many people are now.  But think about it logically.  Once upon a time, childhood ended with GCSEs.  Then it was A Levels.  Now, childhood doesn't really end until some point in your early 20's when you graduate from university and find that you need to get a 'real job' because Mummy and Daddy have had enough of you sponging off them while you were learning.  So, based on that, if you could give yourself a few more years of no responsibility, would you not apply to uni?  Would you not hold on to it as long as you possibly could?

I don't understand how the government thinks that this will solve anything.  It won't.  It'll just make people rethink their decision to better themselves, especially if there is no guarantee of work afterwards. 

Thank you, Tories, for reminding us poor folk of our place.  Appreciated!