Letter: Saddled with a son's debt

Sir: I share Agnes Carrey's sentiments (Tabloid; "The cost of Dearing", 31 July).

My heart sinks as I think of our financial future. My husband is a vicar and I work part-time at our local supermarket. This way we make ends meet and consider we have a reasonable standard of living.

We currently have one child still at school (our daughter earns her living as a dental nurse) and he will almost certainly be worthy of a place at university in due course.

How can we sit back and watch our son saddle himself with a debt of maybe pounds 12,000 in order to go through university? We strive to keep out of debt. My husband was only ordained after declaring that he had no outstanding debts - a legal requirement.

It is a truly terrible thing to owe money without any certain means of repaying it, and to legislate so that this becomes the expectation of our young people is, to my mind, ethically wrong.

I know that we shall be able to make little financial difference to our son's debt load if he goes to university. He should go - he is gifted and will have a real contribution to make in his generation.

But at what price?

Mrs VIVIENNE LEYLAND

Willenhall,

West Midlands