Males
Percentile of the lifetime earnings distribution
The number of years taken to repay (Figure 4c and Table , column c) is also
decreasing in lifetime earnings - ranging from 25 years for the lowest earners (at
which point all outstanding debt will be written off), to between 10 to 15 years for the
highest earners. For women the average time for repayment is around 17 years, whilst
for men it is around 13 years. Around 21% of women can expect to have some debt
written off, with their repayment capped at the 25 year cut-off, whilst this is the case
only for around 2% of graduate men. These results all highlight the fact that the
longer the loan is held by a graduate, the bigger is the taxpayer contribution to the
repayment of that loan. This of course runs counter to a commonly held notion that
holding graduate debt for a long time is an indication of the “heavy burden” of that
debt.
Figure 4c. Years to repay loan under the new HE system
17