Student debt has tripled in the last few years, renting hikes on campus are incessant despite unlivable conditions and the Brexit has put the futures of incoming graduates into questionable peril. Basically, students don’t have it so great at the minute, and the government might soon make it a whole lot worse with a U-turn on student loans.

Current loans are set out to be repaid by graduates who earn above £21,000 a year once they’ve left university. The Government said the figure would be increased each year to parallel average earnings from 2017 onwards to at least 2021. However, the government now wants to freeze it at £21k, which would leave graduates paying more monthly than what they were meant to when they originally took out the loan. For example, graduates on £25k pay £180 a year, but if the freeze comes in, it would be £360 a year.

Over two million graduates will be forced to pay back more, despite not having a parliamentary mandate to make these changes, and mass public backlash. And even though a consultation showed 84 per cent of respondents were against the freeze, the Tories went ahead.

A huge online petition with over 130,000 signees however has forced a parliamentary debate on the subject. It was originally rejected despite reaching the 100,000 signature mark needed to trigger a debate, so this new decision is a positive move. The petition called out the Tory government for not sticking to their original promises on student loans. The debate date is set for 18 July.

The Independent reports that the Labour party’s Valerie Vaz, MP for Walsall South, met with the Universities Minister, Jo Johnson, in the House of Commons and demanded a debate on the subject.

Vaz said: “The new scheme is far from progressive, as some ministers claimed. Graduates earning £21,000 to £30,000 will have to pay £6,100 more, those earning over £40,000 will pay only £400 extra, and those on £50,000 will pay only £200.”

Martin Lewis from Money Saving Expert has previously written about the changes to loans, reports the Independent, in a bid “to put pressure on”. At one stage, he claimed that what was happening was questionable legally. He said: “We need as many MPs as possible to be at the debate and register their disapproval. To make that happen, MPs need to see this is something their constituents care about.

“The debate in itself won’t be binding, but if we can show this is a widespread unpopular move that won’t go away, there is a chance of overturning it.”