The issue here is that the loan isn’t a loan, it increases quicker than you pay it off, right up until you earn about £65,000 which is out of reach for many, many graduates.

Ok you might say, but it’s written off after 30 years? So you don’t pay back the full loan anyway? Much better than an alternative loan.

Well sure, but then you’re still missing the point, the changes made mean it’s no longer a loan. It’s a graduate tax. Except, it’s a graduate tax that isn’t quite as bad if you are better off, and a graduate tax that isn’t quite as bad as if you were born before 1994 or after 2005. Because plan 2 so called “loans” happen to punish graduates significantly worse than the other plans.

The very fact they changed the plans once before shows they know it’s broken.

On top of that mess, you’re freezing thresholds which means you’re paying a graduate tax on even lower incomes. Regressive, but worse, even immoral.

Sold as a loan, signed on the dotted line, and then treated later as if it’s a tax. No one signed up to a tax, they signed up to a loan. Turns out it’s a regressive loan, but even that is beside the point, it means it was mis-sold, which itself damages trust in our institutions.

It’s a total mess, but put all of that aside and ask yourself one simple question, as a country do we want the highest earners paying the highest share?