Student Loans / Early Retirement - Does This Work?

[Frank Hovis]

I'm assuming not for me but for anybody without a first degree.

Can you stop work in your 50s / 60s and then for three years do a degree, maxing the loans, and then retire?

So you can have three years' living costs paid for whilst your pensions and savings increase, safe in the knowledge that you won't need to repay the loans.

Plus you can do a degree in a subject that interest you.

Or are there rules preventing you?

[workingpoor]

You wouldn't have the 30 years to repay before it the loan is "wiped"

The loans are given on a yearly basis ie you get 1 years tuition fees paid (£9k) + living costs (about £4k is the max i think) so you would have to do it year by year.

Not sure if there are any criteria / rules preventing someone in their late fifties getting these loans i suppose it would be discriminatory to refuse?

[Frank Hovis]

I know someone who did this a few years ago, I feel sure they would have closed the loophole by now.

Pretty interested to know the answer myself

Good to hear that's somebody's done it. I was thinking that if you only have a state pension then you can stop work at 64 and effectively retire three years early by doing a degree; then picking up your state pension at 67.

[workingpoor]

The living allowance is pretty meagre most Students have to supplement it with a part time job.

I think it worked out at less than JSA when i looked into it.

[SpectrumFX]

The living allowance is pretty meagre most Students have to supplement it with a part time job.

I think it worked out at less than JSA when i looked into it.

I just had a look at the student finance calculator on the government website and it says you "could" get £8,200 per year as a maintenance loan. To get that I said that I was not living with parents and that I had a household income of £0.

If you've got a kid under 17 it says you can get a childcare grant of £155.24 a week, or £266.15 for 2 or more kids.

It says other potential top ups include;

£1,573 parents learning allowance.

£2,757 adult dependants grant

Child tax credit

Disabled students allowance

I also don't think that they have the records to show who attended university.

[Frank Hovis]

I just had s look at the student finance calculator on the government website and it says you "could" get £8,200 per year as a maintenance loan. To get that I said not living with parents with a household income of £0.

If you've got a kid under 17 it says you can get a childcare grant of £155.24 a week, or £266.15 for 2 or more kids.

It says other potential top ups include;

£1,573 parents learning allowance.

£2,757 adult dependants grant

Child tax credit

Disabled students allowance

I also don't think that they have the records to show who attended university.

Really!

Though being caught out and on the hook for £27k of tuition fees would be a risk I'd maybe not take.

Re workingpoor's point about the living allowance being meagre, it probably isn't if you're not paying rent or are paying rent but also renting out your own house if you own it.

[SpectrumFX]

Really!

Though being caught out and on the hook for £27k of tuition fees would be a risk I'd maybe not take.

Re workingpoor's point about the living allowance being meagre, it probably isn't if you're not paying rent or are paying rent but also renting out your own house if you own it.

Who would have kept the information, and why?

Sure, the universities would have published lists of names at the time, but unless you've a very distinctive name that's no good. My own university has changed its student IT system since I left and has no students on the new system from before about 2001. They may have some paper records in storage, but if so they're probably breaking some provision of the data protection act.

[dgul]

I'm assuming not for me but for anybody without a first degree.

Can you stop work in your 50s / 60s and then for three years do a degree, maxing the loans, and then retire?

So you can have three years' living costs paid for whilst your pensions and savings increase, safe in the knowledge that you won't need to repay the loans.

Plus you can do a degree in a subject that interest you.

Yup. Surprised more people don't do it.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/10947400/Rising-numbers-of-over-50s-taking-out-student-loans.html

They can also get funding to do a masters of PhD, and stretch it out to 4 / 7 years.

You wouldn't have the 30 years to repay before it the loan is "wiped"

The presumption is that your pension will be lower than the payment threshold, so you never have to pay them back. The loans are written off on death (unlike many).

It is a de-facto subsidy for oldies - they continue to get effectively free higher education, even with massive costs.

But it is dreadful - I believe that the purpose of higher education is to make the country stronger - in which case I'm happy to at least part fund it as a taxpayer (as the increased strength of the country will support me in old age - a complex, long term investment). I don't want to fund 'useless' degrees, but I'm kind of happy with it, because what do I know about what skills the country will need in the coming years... But educating people in their late 50s to degree or higher level isn't an investment - it is an indulgence. I'm happy for it to occur, but I'm not happy to pay for it.

[it is exactly the wrong way around! - the ones who will make the country better have to pay twice (upfront in fees, then again in higher taxes), while the indulgent oldies get it free.]

[Frank Hovis]

Wow, ok so you can.

I was thinking that several people on here have expressed a desire to retire early but that funding that retirement was the issue. This way you can fund several years (up to seven by the sounds of it) until your state pension kicks in whilst pursuing an academic interest.

Is it dreadful? The whole system is shot with poor students doing uselss degrees to fund vice-chancellors' salaries rather than the old concept of academic excellence. Somebody who is going into at 60 will presumably have paid a lifetime of taxes to fund the welfare system so is just getting some of those taxes back; say £50k of them. I don't have a problem with that.

[workingpoor]

I just had a look at the student finance calculator on the government website and it says you "could" get £8,200 per year as a maintenance loan. To get that I said that I was not living with parents and that I had a household income of £0.

If you've got a kid under 17 it says you can get a childcare grant of £155.24 a week, or £266.15 for 2 or more kids.

It says other potential top ups include;

£1,573 parents learning allowance.

£2,757 adult dependants grant

Child tax credit

Disabled students allowance

I also don't think that they have the records to show who attended university.

£157 p/wk? (£8200 p/a) i didn't think it was that much, i may look into this.

[dgul]

Wow, ok so you can.

I was thinking that several people on here have expressed a desire to retire early but that funding that retirement was the issue. This way you can fund several years (up to seven by the sounds of it) until your state pension kicks in whilst pursuing an academic interest.

Is it dreadful? The whole system is shot with poor students doing uselss degrees to fund vice-chancellors' salaries rather than the old concept of academic excellence. Somebody who is going into at 60 will presumably have paid a lifetime of taxes to fund the welfare system so is just getting some of those taxes back; say £50k of them. I don't have a problem with that.

Just because something is ill doesn't give you carte blanche to kick it a bit more. It is a complete waste of resources. Perhaps if we thought in terms of CO2 emissions then people would be a bit more thoughtful - something like 'it takes 20 tonnes of CO2 to educate an undergraduate' (building costs, staff costs, travel, necessary capex) and 'another 30 tonnes of CO2 to educate a postgraduate'.

All that said, only 1% of the UK student population is over 55. I'd worry more about it if it was in any way significant.

[19 year mortgage 8itch]

I'm assuming not for me but for anybody without a first degree.

Can you stop work in your 50s / 60s and then for three years do a degree, maxing the loans, and then retire?

So you can have three years' living costs paid for whilst your pensions and savings increase, safe in the knowledge that you won't need to repay the loans.

Plus you can do a degree in a subject that interest you.

Or are there rules preventing you?

Attention sPinwheel,

Now this thread is the immense irony. A sense of entitlement with a soupçon of fraud.

I wonder what is for dessert?

[sPinwheel]

Attention sPinwheel,

Now this thread is the immense irony. A sense of entitlement with a soupçon of fraud.

I wonder what is for dessert?

I can't think of a better way to enrich this thread. I'm out...

[uptherebels]

What am I missing here? If I've got a job, earning say 45k a year, and I've three years to retirement. Why would I pack that in, and get 4k a year?

[Frank Hovis]

What am I missing here? If I've got a job, earning say 45k a year, and I've three years to retirement. Why would I pack that in, and get 4k a year?

Agreed, why would you?

What if you didn't have a job or had a job you didn't like with a low wage?

[Exiled Canadian]

What am I missing here? If I've got a job, earning say 45k a year, and I've three years to retirement. Why would I pack that in, and get 4k a year?

You get to spend three years studying a subject of personal interest in depth (no need to worry about "employability"), spend time in the company of bright young people, and drink subsidised beer; while enjoying long holidays.

It's not the daftest plan.

[uptherebels]

Agreed, why would you?

What if you didn't have a job or had a job you didn't like with a low wage?

Ah, now I'm with you. I can see how that might appeal to some.

Definitely wouldn't do for me.