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Dept for Education and Employment

Answer

Mr. Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what plans he has to mitigate the effect of high debt levels on dental students incurred through the student loan scheme; and if he will make a statement. [63371] Mr. Mudie: Under our new system of student support, dental and medical students in the first four years of their course will have access to the same loan, grant and fees support as all other students. In years five and beyond the Department of Health will meet their tuition fees and they will receive approximately half of their maintenance support through means tested NHS bursaries and the rest in non-means tested loans from the DfEE. Students on the new income contingent loans scheme will benefit from the fairer repayment system which links repayments directly to graduates income. No repayments are made until their income reaches a threshold, initially set at £10,000, and thereafter they are calculated as a percentage of income above that level. This will ensure that dental students, and others with larger loans to repay will have affordable repayments linked directly to their earnings. Dental and other students who entered higher education before 1998-99 and who take out five or more old style loans will repay these loans over a period of seven years compared to five years for borrowers with four or less loans. Borrowers may apply to defer repayment for a year at a time if their income does not exceed the earnings related threshold, which for 1998-99 is set at £17,784 per annum.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

63371; 322 c377-8W

Session

1998-99

Subjects

Debts Dentistry Loans Students

Contains statistics

Yes