Another thing that's different

Yesterday, I was at work. I had printed out something and when I went to the printer, a local woman was there who has worked for the company over the summer. She is a student and is going back to school in a week or so. She had had a discussion about the payback consequences for some student loans she had taken out. First of all, the tuition for a year of university is not as high here in general, and there's guaranteed tuition relief if you are low income. We're talking grants, here, not loans. But loans are often necessary.

The difference comes when it's time to pay the loan back. You pay nothing, not one red cent, until you have an income of £15,000, an amount that would be pretty easy for a single person to live on here. Families could do it, but it would be really tight. The rate is about 2%, I think she said. Anyhow, even then you could be paying as little as £5 per week, a bit more than you'd pay for a meal at Mickey D's. And if you end up still oweing some when it comes time to retire, it's forgiven.

Meanwhile, they keep raising the rate on mine back home. And not too long ago, I read that a court had ruled that they could take 15% of your SS to pay it back. At the rate I'm going, that may happen.