Forget about the actual sum of money. For all practical purposes, it's irrelevant.
Effectively, you'll be paying a small amount of extra tax for the next 30 years. If you earn more than £21,000, HMRC will automatically deduct 9% of everything over that. If you're earning £30,000, that means you'll take home £440 per week instead of £455. If you're earning £40,000, you'll take home £553 a week instead of £586. £50,000 of debt looks really scary, but the reality for most people is about £15 a week in extra tax, which isn't scary at all.
There has been a lot of hysteria about the student loans system, but it really isn't anything to worry about. It'd be nice if everyone got a free education, but the current system is nothing more than a minor inconvenience. If you're not earning more than £21k, you don't have to pay a sausage. If you're earning more, your repayments are a fraction of what you're paying anyway in tax and national insurance. Either way, the debt is completely forgiven after 30 years.
If you move abroad then you'll probably dodge your student loan repayments, but you may well be worse off. Most developed countries have higher taxes than the UK, which is why they can afford to make university education free. If you move to France, you'll pay a lot more tax than in the UK. If you move to Germany, you'll pay more tax and you'll have to pay for your own health insurance.
Here's a non-overwhelming number: zero. That's how much you'll have to pay until you earn over £21,000 a year. Nothing. Nowt. Nada. Jack shit. Bupkis. A big fat fuck-all. If you don't get a well-paying job after graduation, then your degree is free. If you're on the dole, you pay nothing. If you're on minimum wage, you pay nothing.
You don't ever have to think about your student loan. Put it totally out of your mind, it makes no difference. If and when you start earning over £21k, your repayments will be automatically deducted from your salary at a rate that you'll barely even notice. It's not something that deserves your attention, let alone worry.
Whatever, they only even want me on the course because it's so undersubscribed, and to be honest I can't even handle the UCAS shit. 47 lines of what? I have no other options and I was too despondent to apply myself earlier in the year.
Fuck everything, everything's shit and all I want is to fucking die.
"Do some exercise, and here's a prescription for some tenner a pop pills, but only if you beg and repeatedly state how suicidal you are. We don't want to be helping you before you're absolutely, positively, irreversibly at rock bottom."
Go back and keep going back until you get the treatment you need. GPs aren't psychic - if they prescribe something and don't see from you again, they assume that the prescription worked.
