Student debt makes ex-students regret uni

Over a third of ex-students (37 per cent) regret going to university due to the amount of debt it has left them with, according to Aviva’s latest family finances report.

More than one in five (22 per cent) former students aged between 18 and 35 don’t know how much student debt they have left to pay, while those that do reckon it will take 11 years to pay off.

The average level of debt for 18-34 year olds sat at £6,233 across the 527 millennials surveyed at the end of June.

The insurance and saving company’s research also found that millennials have just £156 of spare cash to play with after covering essential living costs.

Luck

This lack of disposable income means that 63 per cent of millennials are relying on a one-off event like family inheritance or redundancy pay-out to help them in the future.

More than a third were banking on bagging a new higher-paying job, while 17 per cent were hoping lady luck would help them win the lottery, despite the chances of winning being 45 million to one. Almost one in five (18 per cent) ex-students hoped their student debt would simply be wiped out in the future.

Many millennials (35 per cent) felt that they were being priced out of the property market, with separate research suggesting that former students could pay up to £53,000 in rent before their 30th birthday.

For those that had managed to get on the property ladder, 12 per cent were depending on the value of their property increasing to help financially in the future.

Brexit

Despite their money worries, almost a third of respondents said they weren’t actively managing their finances, with 28 per cent admitting they’d never learnt to how to manage their money properly.

Aviva’s study also found that just under half (48 per cent) of millennials received financial help from their parents.

Brexit has also taken its toll on millennials’ cash concerns. Before the EU referendum, one in four confessed they were anxious about their future finances, rising to just under half after Britain’s vote to leave the EU was confirmed.

“Millennials are plagued with uncertainty about the outlook for their financial futures, an issue which has not been helped by the uncertainty of today’s economic and political climate,” said Louise Colley, Aviva’s customer propositions director.

“With relatively low disposable incomes and significant debt to tackle, millennials don’t have it easy when managing their finances.”

The Aviva director called for action from the financial industry and government to reduce the gap in financial confidence between young and older people.