Born to an intellectual family in Edinburgh, Helen Lambert was socially conscious from a young age. Now, she faces an intimidating reality as her student loan burden continues to mount. Lambert first took out a total of £57,958 to pay for her education. By the end of November 2025, however, her debt has unexpectedly grown to more than £77,000, despite her making regular repayments since graduating in 2020. The burdensome rates have cut into her ability to stay afloat while in school. As such, it poses fundamental questions about how sustainable the present clearly very expensive system of student finance is.
For Lambert, her journey started in September 2017, the first time she ever took out a loan to finance her university studies. While she was in university, her debt was accumulating at interest rates of 5.4% to 6.3%. Upon graduating early amid the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, she began working in a Covid ward, contributing to the healthcare system during one of its most challenging periods.
A Steep Climb: The Impact of Interest Rates
By April 2022, Lambert’s total debt had increased to £66,648, illustrating the predatory nature of interest accumulation. The debt escalation only compounded this predicament as her student loans ballooned to over £77,000 by the end of 2025. Most of her cohort benefited from NHS bursaries and welcomed an uplift in financial help from September 2020. In stark contrast to Lambert’s experience, Adam’s situation was remarkably different.
Her monthly loan payments are now variable depending on how much work she earns. As a nurse, her income is contingent on whether she works weekends, night shifts or picks up overtime. But even with the help of these initiatives, Lambert has experienced hardly any reduction in her principal balance.
“My payments don’t go against the principal balance – they are not even making a mark on the interest accrued.” – Helen Lambert
The financial burden Lambert faces is compounded by the fact she has left a huge amount of interest alone to keep accumulating. In the 2024-25 fiscal year her debt ballooned to over $53,000. In one month, the interest alone came to a jaw-dropping £488.
Government Response and Future Considerations
In response to concerns regarding student loan repayments and debt levels, the UK government has announced plans to raise the repayment threshold for Plan 2 loans to £29,385 in April. This change is intended to relieve some of the financial burden on graduates such as Lambert.
“We’re raising the plan 2 student loan repayment threshold for the next academic year, meaning a graduate earning £30,000 would repay only about £4 a month in 2027–28.” – Department for Education
Supporters tout their potential, but critics contend these measures haven’t gone far enough. Yet they fail to fully serve those graduates who have already accrued large sums of debt. Labour MP Nadia Whittome raised important questions regarding the effectiveness of the current system:
“If MPs are barely making a dent in their student loan debt after six years of repayments, what chance do other graduates have?” – Nadia Whittome
This sentiment resonates with Lambert, who feels disheartened by her financial situation and the lack of support for graduates in similar circumstances.
The Struggle for Financial Stability
Lambert’s recent experience is a sign of the times that strikes most grads from the 2017-20 cohort. Now, she feels that her education shouldn’t have been entirely free. What she refuses to accept is that students like her didn’t get washed clean of their loans. It’s quite acute for her because she finally discovered that from 2021 until March 2025, she has paid back almost £4,000. Even more shockingly, an astonishing £15,176 was added on in interest.
“It is so disheartening to have this level of debt hanging over you with no achievable way to clear it or even reduce it while they add on upwards of £400 a month in interest.” – Helen Lambert
Lambert’s experience begs important questions concerning the efficiency of our student finance breadth. In doing so, it illustrates the long-term impacts that could harm Americans for generations to come. Under the current plan, she would be responsible for paying off that entire mammoth financial burden alone.
“I don’t know anyone in my situation who is ever going to be able to pay that sort of sum off.” – Helen Lambert
While Lambert feels burdened by her debt, she argues that her student loan is not “bad debt.” It doesn’t prevent her from being able to access other, larger financial loans. Yet, she has an interesting sense of bias over the dangerous conditions that most graduates find themselves in.
“I find it outrageous that students of the 2017-20 cohort were not reimbursed,” – Helen Lambert