Analysis · Financial Times · 19 June 2026
Should I pay off my child’s student loans?: What It Means for Your Student Loan
Written by Zubair Arshed FIA, Chartered Actuary
Fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries
Actuarial Post Life and Health Actuary of the Year 2024
The Financial Times has posed a question many parents quietly ask themselves: should you pay off your child's student loan? The honest answer depends on your child's likely earnings, their repayment plan and the write-off clock, and for most graduates the intuitive move of clearing the balance is the wrong one.
This analysis responds to reporting by Financial Times. We recommend reading the original alongside it: Should I pay off my child’s student loans? ↗
What did the FT actually raise?
The headline is a personal finance question rather than a policy change: should a parent use savings to clear a child's student loan? It is the sort of query that lands in an adviser's inbox whenever a lump sum appears, whether from a bonus, an inheritance or simply years of careful saving.
The instinct behind it is understandable. You see a five-figure debt attached to your child's name, you have the cash, and clearing debt feels responsible. The trouble is that a UK student loan behaves almost nothing like a mortgage or a credit card, so the usual rule of thumb, pay off expensive debt first, can quietly cost you money.
We were not given the full article, only the question. What follows is analysis of the decision itself using the established mechanics of the system, not a summary of the FT's specific advice.