Hi, your situation seems familiar, my story goes a little like this, I did both A-levels & college with aerospace engineering diploma, but no uni, instead after that I worked at student jobs, even stacking shelfs at tesco, didnt go out much or have a massive crazy lifestyle like going to ibiza and so forth, instead I focused on what really metered, flying, so I saved up over time, enough to do PPL with night, did it all in one go, then had enough to start ATPL theory with BGS, mod 1 takes you a while so by the time your ready for that you will have saved up enough for some hours and to do mod 2, the real deal is with hour building... To do it all in UK, you can but costs a lot! Going abroad there are better options... CPL single engine do in UK, IR/ME do abroad again, will cost less and you add it into your UK CPL, so at the end of the day you have a UK fATPL. But as you know thats expensive, so taking a loan is the most common plan for people...
BIG POING, dont go college, no point, your over 19 so you will pay money for it and also it wont give you much in the long run, I have college with very high grades, but no way did it help to get something meanwhile while I was working to save up.
Go to the Open University, its rated very very highly, distance learning, lots of course options, and not as expensive as normal Uni, plus, you dont need a-levels to get in, there's no set grade... Also you can take study breaks, so when you start your ATPL theory, you can pause uni, get the Mod 1 and 2 done and get back to uni... Highly recommend it... ( I think they offer financial aid and plans too).
Are you living at home? Suggest that you do, save more money quicker...
Do you know a second language at all? Sometimes you could relocate to another country for a job offer so its always a plus.
Lastly, Western job market for pilots doesn't look great now, but dont get discouraged, if its your passion and dream, go for it, just don't sell your soul and work for free
Take some flying lessons too see if that really what you want, First class medical is always a good idea before you really start investing into flying, but you can do a few lessons without a medical to try it out....
Hope this was of some use!