There has been much talk about thresholds for payments but everyone knows that thresholds, once introduced, are likely to come down. In these tougher economic times people want as many reassurances as they can get but ideas about thresholds have already had the opposite effect. People will be anxious, not reassured by the idea of thresholds for fees. We expended much effort to create a clean and understandable tax and benefits system in which people were not trapped by thresholds. Anyone whose household income is near a fees threshold would face an enormous increase in expenses in their earnings which in one year might tip them slightly over the benchmark. There would be a perverse initiative to avoid pay increases, overtime work, bonuses and opportunities for promotion. With a few students in a family the effect of fees would be devastating to the family finances.