Student loans have re-entered the political spotlight after Chancellor Rachel Reeves confirmed in the Autumn Budget that the salary threshold for Plan 2 repayments will be frozen at £29,385 for three years from April 2027. Reeves defended the move as “fair and reasonable,” saying that her role is to “get the balance right between tax and spending.” Amid the growing debate, a graduate led campaign called Rethink Repayment is arguing that the system is in need of reform.
“The government has changed the goalposts,” a spokesperson for Rethink Repayment told me, describing repeated freezes of the student loan repayment threshold as a key motivation behind the campaign.
Launching the campaign in July 2025, founder Ollie Gardner had “been talking for a while about how the repeated freezing was unfair,” the spokesperson said, adding that the Autumn Budget threshold freeze “spurred the campaign really into action.”
At the heart of their campaign are three main proposals. They want the repayment threshold to rise with inflation; interest capped at CPI – described as a fairer inflation metric by the spokesperson; and the repayment rate reduced from 9% to 5%. The spokesperson explained that the proposals were modelled with a team of volunteer economists to ensure they were viable, stressing that these changes represent areas where there is “real change and reform that can be done.”
The spokesperson argued that these changes would allow students and graduates to make more informed decisions about their futures. “Young people that are just trying to save for a house or anything are really struggling,” they said, adding that transparent repayment conditions would allow young people to treat university as “a real investment in their future.” Reflecting on their own experiences, they shared that “we thought we were signing up for something but it ended up being something else.”
The campaign has not been without its critics. The spokesperson said some journalists and MPs have dismissed them as “angry millennials,” suggesting that “the only reason they are angry is because they’re earning enough for this to affect them, which means the education was worth it” and that they should be grateful.
The spokesperson rejected this view, saying that “taxing ambition on young people is never the way to incentivise them.” They explained that under the current system, combining a 9% student loan repayment with 2% National Insurance and 40% income tax, can pull graduates into a 51% effective tax bracket. It’s “incredibly high,” they said, noting that young people “can’t buy houses, they can’t go out, they can’t do what they want.”
In response to the criticism they faced, the spokesperson also emphasised that it’s “also not fair because the terms of the loan have been changed on us.” Highlighting the importance of the movement for “fighting for a system that allows young people to do well” and to “hold the government accountable.”
While Rethink Repayment’s proposals focus on Plan 2 loans, the spokesperson said they hope the campaign sparks wider conversation about student finance. Right now, they explained, they are focused on their core proposals, spreading the word as much as possible and getting support but, on a macro level, “tackling it at this stage, hopefully, will allow all future student loans to also be held accountable”.
The spokesperson encouraged readers to support Rethink Repayment by visiting their website (rethinkrepayment.com), where you can learn more about the campaign, sign up to their mailing list, and access an MP email template. Rethink Repayment can also be found on Instagram (@rethinkrepayment), where they post regularly.