George Osborne's budgets taking heavy toll on millennials

[unhappycamper]

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/15/george-osborne-budget-2016-millennials-generation-y-student-debt-housing

From soaring student debt to housing woes, the chancellor has dealt series of blows to Generation Y in recent years

George Osborne's budgets taking heavy toll on millennials
Lizzie Presser
Tuesday 15 March 2016 08.31 EDT

More than five years of George Osborne’s budgets have left young Britons with mounting student debt, depleted housing benefits, and cuts to youth employment and wage support, as millennials continue to weather the fallout from the financial crisis.

The chancellor has delivered a series of blows to higher education support for young adults since 2010, saddling students with record debt as they move into adulthood. Maximum university tuition fees nearly trebled to £9,000 in 2012, covering a £3bn government cut in universities’ teaching budgets and shifting the burden to students.

At the same time, the £500m education maintenance allowance was axed in England, meaning the poorest students aged 16-19 lost up to £30 each week. As a small concession, the government invested £150m a year in a national scholarship fund.

But in another move against low-income students, the last budget revealed that student grants would be scrapped in favour of student loans. The education maintenance grants for disadvantaged students in England and Wales came to £1.6bn per year, and more than half a million students will lose access to grants of up to £3,387 a year from September.