By Thomas Hyde, First Year, Politics and International Relations
The feeling that most dominated this year’s budget was relief: relief for a chancellor who has secured her own job; relief for children being lifted out of poverty; and relief for working people who may well think it could have been worse. Encountering the chancellor at her post-budget celebration, she appeared genuinely pleased with the reaction from MPs, financial markets, and wider society. For me though, she failed to fully consider the interests of students and instead continues a costly trend which gives young people little to celebrate and much to fear.
From the offset, Reeves knew that her fiscal policies would have to generate serious revenue to support promised investment in the NHS and children’s welfare. Students will make a contribution to this effort, with the chancellor freezing the student loan repayment threshold at £28,470. The figure will no longer rise as intended, forcing those with salaries above this level to begin repaying tuition loans. At the same time, tuition fees are set to increase at the rate of inflation each year for the financial viability of higher education. A new levy for universities based on intakes of international students may also impact the quality of services delivered by institutions. Altogether, these measures will have a material impact on student experience, affordability, and disposable income after graduation.
To the chancellor’s credit, some measures were also aimed at supporting the most disadvantaged young people. For those aged 18-21, the minimum wage will rise 8.5 per cent in April, whilst low-income students will see the return of maintenance grants for the first time in almost a decade. These steps are welcome, but they cannot negate the reality that university education has become less and less affordable for decades and will continue to do so.
This contrasts with the good fortune of pensioners in this budget and many that came before it. Whilst young people suffer from spiralling costs, each pensioner is set to receive a state pension rise of £575 annually. Since 2011, pensions have increased every year at the rate of inflation or wage growth, whichever has been higher. This was a well-intentioned policy aimed at reducing pensioner poverty, but years of investment has seen pension income rise by almost 50 per cent whilst wages have stagnated. Many over-65s own homes that young people today can only dream of, and politicians have repeatedly chosen to deepen this generational divide.
Lilianna Car
2025’s budget was no different. It promised ‘fairness’, a principle mentioned no fewer than 15 times in Reeves’ speech. She hoped to live up to this with taxes on mansions, gambling profits, savings, and dividends, yet still hit students with new and rising costs. This is understandable at a time when all have to contribute a little more, but the comparison with rising pension payments is stark. Like her predecessors, the chancellor knows that pensioners regularly turnout to vote at elections, unlike under-25s. Her budget therefore employed the age-old strategy of protecting those who vote and hammering those who don’t.
Featured image: Epigram / Thomas Hyde
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