the student loans company

[Shazz]

..and they've messed EVERYONE around this year \o/

so far they've lost my ****ing payment schedule once, sent me the old one once, and the one i need wont turn up intime for me to get my loan...

****ing excellent, is it me or is any government backed/approved organisation run by utter ****tards who dont have a clue what they are doing?

[Cabe]

Its not government run, its merely government approved.

[D0c]

It's dependant on your LEA and how slack you are in applying from my experience. I didn't apply until late July this year round but have still had my payment schedule through alright (but Warwickshire are win at this kind of thing)

[Dunceantix]

I will have retired before I pay off my student loan due to inflation which is added each month and the amount they take each month :) Isn't that fun :)
Still where else can you get a huge loan for 1.2% interest ;)

[ProfLiebstrom]

My LEA have been fine getting everything sorted, just the SLC have been utter ****e at posting things out.

Taking over 2 weeks for letters to come, that sort of thing. I think i have 4 copies of the same letter now too.

[tucool]

The student loans company are the worst 'company' Ive ever had to deal with... ever. I had to pay back a loan of like £1000 I got when I went to college in 2004 and I dont even think I got it though them, I thought it was SAAS :S anyway they started taking like £1.50 a month... then it was like £50 - £60 - £100... it came right off my payslip too and when I phoned them they didnt know what was goin on. Ive heard nothing but bad things about them period.

[Neon]

The SLC are ****s.

[Rupert]

wtf, i just did everything online and have had exactly 0 problems...?

[redimps]

tbh ive never had a problem with them, iv always got payment on time etc.

until this year (my 4th and final year, hopefully) they haven't sent me anything whatsoever yet, i seem to remember in previous years i've got the payment schedule in mid/late august.
Anyone confirm?

I feel the need to pick up the telephone

[Steadders]

I'm still waiting for mine, it's still on "Processing" and payment is due this Tuesday.

[Zenith]

Watch out in future years when they hit you for what they think you should have paid for the year. They get onto HMRC and just say "He owes us £xxx" and then HMRC change your tax code so that you pay more tax to pay what they think you owed.

I got hit for just over £500 last year. HMRC are still chasing me even now for it. Since it isn't tax, it isn't tax evasion, but they still chase you like rottweilers.

[catbeef]

do a lol@shazz roll

[panda_sam]

i've had tons of problems with SAAS and the student loans company.

as some of you will know i haven't lived with my parents since i was 16 and have been a student all that time. i finally got round to doing a HNC level course and applied for my loan the day after i had my interview,(i was given an uncondition acceptance).

now the slc and saas are throwing up all kinds of blockades because i haven't lived on benefits/suported myself for 3 years, my parents aren't dead and i'm under 25.

i was supposed to get my first loan payment on the 29th of august, and i did.....

a whopping £39.00, gee thanks mr slc.

seeminlgy because of the above mentioned conditions i only qualify for a £460.00 loan for the entire year, even though i have no other income and am having to move out of my flat because there's no way i can afford the rent,(even with the help of the college hardship fund).

it's in the process of being resolved, hopefully, and i should get their official response next week. however if they decide that i don't "qualify" for the full loan amount i will have to quit college :<

[Shazz]

rofl, they're just taking the piss now

[JeRkY]

I am still having issues, despite a number of times to get them to start taking money for repayments, they still havnt. I have been out of uni for probably 4 years now, and been earning over the threshold repayment point for just as long.

They just dont seem to want to take my repayments, but are quite happy slapping on the annual interest each year.

At uni, it was fine, payments from them were always on time, my troubles with them started after i left.

[Afty]

I'm still trying to work how they make money/raise funds, being that their interest rate is to the best of my knowledge based on RPI - which is a bullshot measure designed to make inflation appear less than it is.

On top of that they have pretty significan admin fees, many obligations, and must have a large number of bad debtors, judging from how easy it is to get out paying...

Could someone confirm for me, if they know, how they make a profit, and/or what the current rate of interest is or is tied to?

[Shazz]

i believe when you start earning over 15k PA, you start paying 5% interest instead of 1.5%

[Elkeeed]

I am still having issues, despite a number of times to get them to start taking money for repayments, they still havnt. I have been out of uni for probably 4 years now, and been earning over the threshold repayment point for just as long.

They just dont seem to want to take my repayments, but are quite happy slapping on the annual interest each year.

At uni, it was fine, payments from them were always on time, my troubles with them started after i left.

You can pay any amount at any time if you want to pay it off especially.

The interest rate they charge is based on inflation during august so last year it was 2.4% the whole year because of a low month and this year its 4.8% because of a particularly high month. Though it still averages out as the lowest loan you are gonna get. It doesn't suddenly jump up at all.

The company isn't setup to make money, although its a seperate company its still a government service.

[tucool]

now the slc and saas are throwing up all kinds of blockades because i haven't lived on benefits/suported myself for 3 years, my parents aren't dead and i'm under 25.


I started Uni at the begining of September, and Im 20. They accepted me as 'self supporting' because Ive been in constant employment for the past 3 years and have my own house, I had to give them all sorts of stuff though. Eg P60's for the past 3 years, 12 months payslips, 3 years council tax notices, birth certificate etc.

I got my bursary letter in and I get £121.50/month for 'travel and maintenance'. I dont know what the hell Im going to maintain with the £21.50 after I spend the £100 on petrol but heh Im sure I wont be long in spending it. Meanwhile theres this really annoying chick in some of my lectures who has been unemployed for the past god knows how long and she has no problems telling everyone howmuch she 'makes in benefits' a month. Her rent is paid, and she collects a bursary of something like £390/month. I dont know if they think Ive saved up to go to Uni or if they think 'hes worked before so he can just work while studing full time'.

I dont mind getting a part time job, its proving difficult so far though Ive applied to loads of places and theres no response.. not even a no which isnt great. Thankfully I paid my rent till end Oct with my last wage and my parents can loan me some ££ till I get some kind of job but it pissed me off that regardless of the amount of taxes Ive paid (and I was paying alot) compared to the lay-about and she gets more 'maintenance' than me!

I cant drop out, I gave up a pretty well paid job (at least for someone like me who's from the slums :D) so Ive got to just grin and bear it until someone will finally employ me :D

I hate SAAS and SLC because they also sneer at you when you hand the forms in, or maybe that was just me.


Edit in responce to Afty: When I was working in debt collection/insolvency around 1 in 3 people who signed a TD or were declared bankrupt had a SLC account. SLC have recently started to object to voluntary debt clearing schemes and will push for bankruptcy in almost all cases, which is causing problems here in Scotland and I assume also in England. My 'contact' at the SLC sends people out to measure the distance from the house to the nearest bus stop etc they were getting beyond a joke. That, to me looks like they are finally doing something about the backlog of debts.

[Murray-Mint]

Bastards are taking £75 a month from me, it'll be paid back in 10 years at this rate!

[Afty]

SLC have recently started to object to voluntary debt clearing schemes and will push for bankruptcy in almost all cases, I'm under the impression that bankruptcy no longer voids your debts to the Student Loans Company... recent legislation I heard about a while back... anyone confirm?

[Afty]

The interest rate they charge is based on inflation during august so last year it was 2.4% the whole year because of a low month and this year its 4.8% because of a particularly high month.I'm really struggling to work out how they make any money at all... these rates are below the RPI which is a bull**** measure of inflation design to make everyone feel better about getting poorer... you can't raise finance with that kind of maximum return even on the assumption that you have NO overheads and no risk... and the SLC seem to have significant amounts of both.

Where is the money coming from for this... I'm just a little concerned that somebody somewhere might be topping up that pot with taxpayers money. In other words, mine.

[TheDon]

I'm under the impression that bankruptcy no longer voids your debts to the Student Loans Company... recent legislation I heard about a while back... anyone confirm?

Higher education act 2004 closed the loophole that let it happen. So you're correct, you can't discharge a student loan with bankruptcy.
You also can't just do the usual moving abroad for 6 years so they can't contact you for you to acknowledge the debt either.

There is no way to get a student loan cleared anymore.

[panda_sam]

hey accepted me as 'self supporting' because Ive been in constant employment for the past 3 years

they had trouble accepting me as self supporting at first because i haven't been supporting myself for 3 years.

then again it's impossible for me to have supported myself for 3 years since i'm only just 18.

it is a little annoying that people on benefits, (well not for me), get more financial help, but then again they have no other source of income.

good luck on getting yourself a job, i've applied for part time work myself. hopefully i did as well in the interview as i thought i did ;p

[Cheez]

There is no way to get a student loan cleared anymore.

Pay it? :)

[Freelance]

i paid mine off last year, no problems with taking my money

[TheDon]

Pay it? :)
Damn pedants ;)
I thought about putting "other than by paying it" after that, but thought it's so obvious it wasn't worth stating :p

[Elkeeed]

Where is the money coming from for this... I'm just a little concerned that somebody somewhere might be topping up that pot with taxpayers money. In other words, mine.

Well yeah thats exactly where it comes from. From a taxpayers point of view it is much better that its all in loans which are at least supposed to be paid back rather than the grants that it used to be. Also it is an investment in the country's future, everyone benifits indirectly from the skills that most of the people pick up.

You can get out of paying it back if you earn too little for x amount of years, but thats less worth doing than just paying it back.

[tucool]

Higher education act 2004 closed the loophole that let it happen. So you're correct, you can't discharge a student loan with bankruptcy.

I know that as recent as August 2007 (when I stopped working in Insolvency) we were still adding SLC to debtors list of creditors. They were ranking as ordinary claims and not once was it mentioned about student loans somehow being immune to debt clearing programmes. I only know this for a fact because they were so anal about the whole thing everytime I had to phone them.

Its possible that the laws differ between Scotland and the rest of the UK as English/Welsh insolvency law has no effect in Scotland.

The Higher Education Act 2004 http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2004/ukpga_20040008_en_5#pt4-l1g42 is English law, seems strange to me that any debt can be immune to bankruptcy/English IVA... as it defeats the whole purpose of a debt clearing scheme. I guess theres a good reason for it.

[Afty]

I guess theres a good reason for it.Yep, some people bought the law to make more profit.

[ez64]

seems like the middle class are screwed again.

If I was foreign poor or if my parents were lazy I wouldnt have to pay for university, almost makes tax evasion moral

[TheDon]

I know that as recent as August 2007 (when I stopped working in Insolvency) we were still adding SLC to debtors list of creditors. They were ranking as ordinary claims and not once was it mentioned about student loans somehow being immune to debt clearing programmes. I only know this for a fact because they were so anal about the whole thing everytime I had to phone them.

Its possible that the laws differ between Scotland and the rest of the UK as English/Welsh insolvency law has no effect in Scotland.

The Higher Education Act 2004 http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2004/ukpga_20040008_en_5#pt4-l1g42 is English law, seems strange to me that any debt can be immune to bankruptcy/English IVA... as it defeats the whole purpose of a debt clearing scheme. I guess theres a good reason for it.

The loophole for Scotland was closed after the English one, but it's definitely been closed there as well.
The SLC would still be listed as a creditor, as having to repay the loans does effect your ability to repay others, so they would be taken into account in bankruptcy procedings, but they wont get cleared because the way the repayments are designed is in a way that shouldn't put a financial strain onto you.

Yep, some people bought the law to make more profit. or so taxpayers are left with less bad debt from people who go through uni racking up huge credit card bills then declare themselves bankrupt and go "so long, thank's for all the free stuff!" and getting their student loans wrote off as well :p

[Afty]

or so taxpayers are left with less bad debt from people who go through uni racking up huge credit card bills then declare themselves bankrupt and go "so long, thank's for all the free stuff!" and getting their student loans wrote off as well :pWell, assuming you have "Student Loans" in the first place... If there is no ridiculous SLC legislation, there are no loopholes to exploit :)

[Elbonio]

or so taxpayers are left with less bad debt from people who go through uni racking up huge credit card bills then declare themselves bankrupt and go "so long, thank's for all the free stuff!" and getting their student loans wrote off as well :p


wouldnt this mean they are then unable to get a credit card, loan for a car or get a mortgage easily as they have a big red DO NOT LEND MONEY TO THIS PERSON HE HAS BEEN BANKRUPT next to their name?

Not such a smart move :p

[kalleth]

God i hate the SLC's phone system. Instead of just putting you on hold, it just drops you from the call. Or, you get all the way through the menu system, and then.. "Due to technical difficulties.. *click*".

DIE?

btw still haven't recieved a payment schedule and i leave in less than a week!

[Afty]

wouldnt this mean they are then unable to get a credit card, loan for a car or get a mortgage easily as they have a big red DO NOT LEND MONEY TO THIS PERSON HE HAS BEEN BANKRUPT next to their name?

Not such a smart move :pIt only "stays on your record" for so long (or at least that used to be the case). For anyone with a MASSIVE student loan about to start paying it back, it was a great idea to declare bankruptcy so long as you weren't looking for a mortgage in the next few years - it saved you a huge amount of money in the long run, and with recent consumer friendly mortgage deals you could probably get one anyway!

[Dunceantix]

It only "stays on your record" for so long (or at least that used to be the case). For anyone with a MASSIVE student loan about to start paying it back, it was a great idea to declare bankruptcy so long as you weren't looking for a mortgage in the next few years - it saved you a huge amount of money in the long run, and with recent consumer friendly mortgage deals you could probably get one anyway!

6 years I think it is...