Helen Jones
Main Page: Helen Jones (Labour - Warrington North)Department Debates - View all Helen Jones's debates with the Department of Health and Social Care
(8 years, 3 months ago)
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Paul Scully
I do not believe so. There were similar predictions for students in general when the student fee loan system came in, but that did not happen. People thought that student numbers would decline. They have not; they have increased. I do not believe that diversity in university courses in general has declined and I do not see any reason why that should be the case with nursing, although I understand the concern. A number of people have raised that concern both in Twitter conversations that we and nurses have had and in a number of events that have been held in the lead-up to this petition debate, including the one immediately before the debate. I understand the concern but I do not see the evidence.
Helen Jones (Warrington North) (Lab)
The hon. Gentleman will have heard, as I did, in the discussion that we just had with many student nurses that many of those going into the profession are mature students. Sometimes they already have debts from previous degrees or they have families to keep. If we are to maintain diversity and encourage people with considerable life experience to enter the profession, we must incentivise them to do so and not load them with more debt.
Paul Scully
I will just complete my comments regarding student loans in general, but then I will come directly to the hon. Lady’s point because it is one of the issues particular to nurses that I mentioned a little while ago. Student loans in general do not go on credit files, so the only way that a loan, credit card or mortgage company will know if someone has a student loan is if they ask for it. Obviously, for bigger loans, they tend to ask. Student debt is not accounted for by mortgage lenders in terms of the total amount owed, although they will look at the affordability of the loan and at an applicant’s outgoings. When tuition fees and student loans were first introduced, the Council of Mortgage Lenders confirmed that lenders would not use that or add that total debt to the amount owed when they considered mortgages.