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Re: cost of courses in Europe.
This confirms my (likely bias) that says the £9k+ fees, private halls, private landlords and multiple private companies all with snouts in the trough from students are bordering on some kind of scam/Ponzi scheme.
If universities are really all about education, why are they charging so much for halls (which in turn means the private halls and landlords charge so much)? Why does every course cost the same (the maximum(yes I know, cross subsidy)? Why are international students paying £15-25k for pre recorded lectures? Why did two universities refuse to work with my organisation in the grounds that we 'only' brought in around £600-1000 a day per staff member, and thier target was £3-10k...!
None of this takes away from the great teaching and the caring staff. But they're working in a system that's not about education and nation building any more, it's about money.
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Why does every course cost the same (the maximum)
"Nobody wants to look like their course is the budget option."
Quoted to me by a Professor at one of our leading Uni's.
He made an example of when they doubled the cost of their MBA course. They then got double the number of applications while making no other changes.
But they’re working in a system that’s not about education and nation building any more, it’s about money.
And I wonder why there's so much interest from members of our current government in privatising the NHS?
I don’t buy that at all, if he knows he’s only paying 10.4% tax, he’s definitely gaming it.
It's not too hard to manage though. At £50k it means paying £5k tax. Simply salary sacrifice £12.5k of your salary into pension/c2w so your effective pay is £35k. On £37.5k your taxes 20% on £25k, or approx £5k.
It's worth noting you'll pay 20% tax on a lot of your pension when withdrawing it, so it's not quite as efficient as it looks.
It's also worth noting that by cutting the interest rate to the rate of inflation, the example of "city banker Vs nurse" will have the banker (who pays their loan off) paying more in real terms, as the loan now has an effective interest rate of 0%. The nurse may pay more in absolute numbers, but in real terms it's less
It’s also worth noting that by cutting the interest rate to the rate of inflation, the example of “city banker Vs nurse” will have the banker (who pays their loan off) paying more in real terms, as the loan now has an effective interest rate of 0%. The nurse may pay more in absolute numbers, but in real terms it’s less
I'm pretty good with numbers, tax and the like, but you're going to have to run that one past me again
Add in the changes to NI, and we clearly shifting the tax/payment burden onto the lower paid and away from the better off.
Yup, totally agree.
Except that the higher paid are more likely to be higher rate tax payers and thus pay more income tax….
That’s a gross oversimplification and you know it (just trying to recall if you’re the poster that posts loads of good stuff on all the share/investment threads)
Yep - that's me. The majority of income tax is still paid by the higher earners though...
Here are some stats from the ONS for the average overall tax rate by income tax band:
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51902912666_c52f677246.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51902912666_c52f677246.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2n5tZEA ]Average tax rate[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/brf/ ]Ben Freeman[/url], on Flickr
And some stats on the distribution of who pays what:
Distribution of income and Income Tax liabilities
The top 50% of Income Tax payers received 74.6% of total income in 2018 to 2019, or £834bn out of a total £1,120 billion. This resulted in a 49.2 percentage point income inequality between the top and bottom 50% of Income Tax payers (where 0 percentage points is completely equal)
However, the top 50% of Income Tax payers were liable for 90.5% of total Income Tax in 2018 to 2019, or £168 billion out of a total £187 billion, indicating the progressive nature of the Income Tax system
The top 1% of Income Tax payers make up the majority of additional rate Income Tax payers and received 12.5% of total income in 2018 to 2019
In addition, the top 1% of Income Tax payers were liable for 28.9% of total Income Tax in 2018 to 2019. This is projected to decrease to a 28.0% share of total Income Tax by 2021 to 2022
As for your friend:
I A close friend of mine earns in the 40% tax bracket, and yet he only pays around 12 % tax. (<Edit>He’s just looked at his payslip and it’s 10.4% actually) He maxes his share options, gets a Cycle to Work voucher, and nursery vouchers, he maxes out his pension payments etc to ensure he doesn’t actually pay any tax at 40% and pretty much never has. His employer even bung the 13.8% employer’s NI contribution on top of anything he pays in his pension. In the unlikely event that he ends up earning 6 figures and hence hits the £40kPA pension max, or the £100-£120k 60% effective tax bracket, I’m pretty confident he will find a way around that.
That doesn't sound at all correct, but without seeing his pay slips etc hard to comment. I used to earn £100k and pay £40k pa into my pension and paid a lot more than 10% tax each year (EDIT just worked it out, on £60k you pay £16,507.24 tax, so about 16%, however only 25% of the first £1m of the pension is tax free, so you have deferred tax rather than avoided it). NB I've stopped paying into a pension so now pay about 30% tax rate.
NB You don't have to earn £100k to hit the £40kPA pension max, you only have to earn £40k and pay it all in.
Seems ok to me. Only half of all graduates will in fact pay back their loans so my taxes will still be subsidising lower paid graduates which I don’t think I have an issue with. Should I be outraged at this?
I don't think most people are totally opposed to the concept - its the implementation. Child A has affluent parents, they fund them through university debt free, and so they pay no extra "tax". Child B is less well off takes a loan, but gets a well paid job and pays the loan back quickly as a result - so they pay the money back with a little bit of interest. Child C goes also takes a loan but works in a less well paid career so takes a long time to pay it back all the time accruing interest so that for their whole career they are paying back the money. Child D also takes a loan but keeps just under the magic threshold so never pays back a penny.
I reckon that if you work for the government/country you should not be paying back anything. So if after you graduate you become a state health worker, or teacher, or police office, or you join the army, etc you pay nothing. I’d probably extend that to all key workers as well.
This would be a small incentive to take low paid but essential work, and wouldn’t cost that much.
Interestingly my private sector employer has been discussing ways to retain graduates longer (it takes us about 12-18 months to actually make them competent and then they often leave because other places know we train them well!). Senior management is having some serious discussions about "if you stay for 5 years we will pay off your student loans" type arrangements. I don't think we are there yet (we've got bogged down in what-ifs), but some employers will start and then I think all sectors will have to do something similar for jobs where a degree is actually a requirement.
So you can currently get a degree without Maths or English GCSE? Blimey
Just a few weeks ago everyone was marvelling at Jake from Repair shop for having managed to get a degree and make a success of life despite being unable to read/write. I assume that means he doesn't have a GCSE in English. I worry that this proposal means someone who's had a really bad start in life, a shit experience at school and at 14/15 been dumped by society will find it even harder at 25 to change their destiny.
Our two administration posts were inundated with applications from degree- in-an-unrelated-subject holding applicants. Half of them couldn’t spell or even read the application instructions (cover letter and CV). I’m not sure what all these fresh graduates expected to do as a job or what they expect to earn, but a junior £24k admin job didn’t 6 need a biology degree.
I imagine if they have a biology degree they thought when they left school that they would pursue a career in science, they've now graduated and discovered there are bugger all jobs in biology and those that do exist pay less than £24k and treat you worse than an admin job. That's before you count the ones who, having studied it for 4 years intensively would quite happily never look through a microscope again - but have discovered skills or interests which are transferable to other settings. (Then there will be ones who are signing on and were told to apply to X jobs this week, or who moved back home after their degree who's parents are suggesting to apply to anything in the vague hope they can get rid of the again!).
I imagine if they have a biology degree they thought when they left school that they would pursue a career in science, they’ve now graduated and discovered there are bugger all jobs in biology and those that do exist pay less than £24k and treat you worse than an admin job.
I had a friend who trained to be a physio, 4 year degree and when she graduated there were not enough NHS places for her to complete her training and become fully qualified. She'd basically been screwed over - ended up a not fully qualified physio.
There really should be better information available when picking a degree on what career options reaaly exist.
Obviously you can still choose to study Biology and then work in MacDonalds through choice, but at least you'd have chosen that path at the start.
I’m pretty good with numbers, tax and the like, but you’re going to have to run that one past me again
The loan increases with inflation, so it effectively doesn't change in value each year. (It's more, but the amount of money it is still buys the same amount of stuff).
As the banker pays their loan off, and presumably the nurse does not, the banker pays more in real terms.
(I'm not sure I agree with it, but I get the reasoning)