£10,000 threshold 'must be raised'

Scotland's deputy education minister, Nicol Stephen, has warned it will be "unacceptable" if the £10,000 earnings threshold for repaying student loans is not raised within three years. This is when the first Scottish graduates will pay into the graduate endowment scheme under proposed legislation, that ties contributions to loan repayments.

Speaking in a Scottish Parliament debate on the graduate endowment bill, Mr Stephen said the £10,000 threshold, set in 1998, was overdue for review. "I sense a recognition at the Department for Education and Employment that the current threshold cannot be maintained for ever," he said.

"Scottish executive officials are in close touch with their counterparts in Whitehall, who take the lead on such matters under this United Kingdom system. If in 2004, graduates are asked to repay their loans at 9 per cent of their income over £10,000, I would regard that as unacceptable," Mr Stephen said.