It’s always been a desire of the new head of training of easyJet to reduce the cost of training
for new pilots.
I remember reading an email from him about it not long ago.
The plan long term would be to
do type ratings in house for ntr FOs to reduce costs for pilots, but that might take a while due to sim availability.
I don’t think anyone that started before the new price structure came in force has grounds to ask for a refund, unfortunately.