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EPISODE · Feb 25, 2026 · 18 MIN

The 51% Graduate Tax

from Merryn Talks Money · host Bloomberg

Many of the graduates whose university costs were funded with Plan 2 student loans are now in their 30s, wondering why they have no money at the end of the month, and why they still owe more student debt than they left uni with. The critical mass of graduates feeling the pinch might just have been reached - and now they're feeling angry and ripped off. On this week’s personal finance edition of Merryn Talks Money, Editor at Large for Bloomberg UK Wealth, Merryn Somerset Webb and author of the Money Distilled newsletter, John Stepek unpick how Plan 2 and the new - perhaps even worse - Plan 5 loans work, how and why graduate marginal tax rates can easily exceed 50% and what tweaks could be made to ease the burden. They also ask the overarching question: is the problem the system? Or is it the fact that the UK seems to be incapable of creating enough high paying jobs?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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The 51% Graduate Tax

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This episode is 18 minutes long.

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This episode was published on February 25, 2026.

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Many of the graduates whose university costs were funded with Plan 2 student loans are now in their 30s, wondering why they have no money at the end of the month, and why they still owe more student debt than they left uni with. The critical mass of...

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