The lower profits for the quarter reflect the anticipated impact of the Durbin Amendment, a change in federal rules for debit card transaction fees that will likely result in much higher per-transaction fees for customers who pay for small transactions with debit cards.

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Behind these cuts is human hardship poor families who will no longer get subsidised child care to allow the parents to work, old and sick people who no longer receive visits from carers, pupils who sit in larger classes and get less attention, young people who can no longer afford to pay the higher tuition fees of the state universities.

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This balance of benefits has fuelled the debate over who should pay to fill the funding gap created by English universities being allowed to charge higher tuition fees.

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Students in Northern Ireland who decide to go to another part of the UK which charges higher fees will have to pay them.

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