Ok I'm gonna rant but I'm actually quiet pleased. After reading the student loan thread yesterday it got me thinking about where i'm up to with mine.

I never receive any statements so rang them up a min ago to ask where I'm at.

Balance just over £2,000 he says.
That sounds a lot says I
Oh, hang on a minute, it looks like we haven;t received payment yet from the 09-10 tax year.

It turns out that Inland revenue deducts the money from me on a monthly basis. Then holds it. At the end of the tax year they give the student loans company a lump sum.
All seems a bit backwards but it means that despite being deducted about £173 a month over the last 18 months the students loan company hasn't seen a penny of it.

Now for the good news… It looks like I've well over paid as they haven't taken this into account. So I probably should have finished paying about 6 months ago. Looks like after I fax a few wage slips back to them and a P60 i'll be getting a hefty rebate 🙂 Cha ching!!

It really boils my pi$$ though that another screw up has been shafting me out of £173.00 a month for a while now!!

Should I be demanding interest on the overpayments or just grateful to get them back?

another screw up has been shafting me out of £173.00 a month

if it was me I might have checked the balance sooner and, if I hadn't, then accepted the screw up was at least partly mine.

So, presumably the loan accumulates interest all year on the outstading balance, then a lump sum is paid off it? While inland revenue accumulates interest all year on the money you've paid, but they've not passed on?
Surely not??? 🙂

Yeh yeh knew that was coming lol

I'll hold my hands up to it but I have been paying it for about 12 years so its always just been one of those things that goes on and on. I have checked it periodically but when I checked last year there was still a fair amount to pay. Obviously that means the last balance I got didn't take into account the previous tax years payments I'd already made.

You are right though. I should except full responsibilty for it. Afterall I really shouldn't expect the inland revenue or Student loan company to do there job correctly.

Yeh exactly Vinny, any chance to screw you eh?

You'd think that payments you made in April 2009 might have got to them by now though!

Should I be demanding interest on the overpayments or just grateful to get them back?

They'll automatically give you interest on your overpayments. They did with mine anyway.

They did with mine anyway.

Oh, not the only one then.
They couldn't manage to actually get the loans to the students last year for weeks & weeks so God knows why I expected them to be on the ball with repayments.

you're not the only one. this happens to everyone; it's what's laid out in their small print.

im sorry but the responibility lies with you, knowing how sloppy the loans company/government are with loans- i was always aware of the date id finish paying

how is this the government's fault?

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Yep, happens to everyone I'm afraid.

And they aren't always that quick at taking payments. I've had a couple of mates who've avoided paying anything for years (despite earning way more than the threshold).

Yeh yeh. As said I am quiet pleased about the prospect of a rebate.

Do you not think its kinda sad though that its accepted that they WILL screw up so its my its my responsibility for double checking other peoples competancy.

Maybe if I received more than one annual statement in 12 years or was given the correct balance when I contated them last year i'd take more responsibility.

I personally can't see why when you're issued with your loans you can't get a unique number with which to view your account online. Seems straightforward and sensible to me.

how is this the government's fault?

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HM Revenue & Customs has taken payments from me since April 2009 without forwarding any of them on to the student loans company.

Is HM Revenue & Customs no longer a department of the British Government?

Have you kept them informed of your addresses? I always get an annual statement through, and the advice leaflet tells you what to do if you're likely to finish repayment in the next year to avoid overpaying. (Not that I'm going to be doing that anytime soon though)

If you contact the company directly,you can set up a monthly DD straight to student loans company.This means the Inland Revenue cannot accumulate interest for a year,while your loan continues to grow.I did it and actualy started to see the amount owed coming down.The SL company will write to the Revenue and tell them to stop deducting.

Yeh they've got my address as its all tied in with your Tax.

Your address & phone number is also part of the security procedure they go through before they speak to you

you got through University but cant work out some basic maths? and at what point in the 12 years did you realise you were not getting statements and tried to do something about it?

Yup, but it is in the notes that YOU are responsible for organising repayments (you tell your payroll to take it off with PAYE, you calculate the last payment date, you inform payroll to stop etc).

Bit disheartening, assuming a 4 year course with only a maintenance loan to pay back (i.e £4500 p/a loan, and either the gov or your parents paid the fees). A starting sallary of £30k isn't enough to pay it off in the 25 years (assuming inflationary pay rises and inflationary interest)!

Stato – I tend to go for paperless billing with most things so it never bothered me, I just rang up periodically to get balaances.
Basic maths only tends to work when you have the correct starting figure.

Thisisnotaspoon – When I got the loan it was all automated. Ie THEY start taking money when you earn over the threshold, THEY inform your company through the Revenue system and THEY inform payroll when to stop. I've just been told to provide them with wage slips and last years P60 so I can prove i've over paid. Only then will THEY send a stopping letter to my company that will finish the payments.

It's not like STW to lynch the OP 😆

A starting sallary of £30k isn't enough to pay it off in the 25 years

At least they wipe them after 25 years now. Some of us have the privelege of potentially paying them until we're 65!

I've just been told to provide them with wage slips and last years P60 so I can prove i've over paid. Only then will THEY send a stopping letter to my company that will finish the payments.

Yep, you may well get a rebate, pay another months fee and have to claim a second rebate. I think I did as they have 30days in which to stop taking the payment after the issue of the letter.

The whole thing is indeed a big pile of rubbish. A few years back I paid off a chunk of mine; I sent a cheque in as I wanted some human intervention somewhere before I did a bank transfer into the ether. Over two years went by without hearing a peep; no statements, no "hello we got your cheque kthanxbye", nothing… so I phoned up and eventually got internet access to my balance. But… the balance was last updated before I sent the cheque in, nearly THREE years before, so that was a fat lot of good.

A while after I finally got a statement; apparently HMRC hadn't bothered to update SLC on how much loads of people had paid for ages. It seems a ridiculous system; HMRC take the money but don't know when to stop, SLC know how much you used to owe but don't know how much you've paid since then, and you're meant to work out when you need to stop paying even though it might have been ages since you last had a statement, in which time you'll have made loads of different monthly payments, the interest rates will have changed (and that's a whole new load of stupid in itself) and you may have made additional payments as well. Where do you start with how insanely stupid the whole thing is?!

Bah.

I think I was fortunate enough for my loan never to be mixed up with my pay or HMRC. Direct debit straight to the SLC, annual statements, and they stopped automatically exactly when I had predicted.

Having read a few horror stories similar to the above, it was a very pleasant surprise 🙂

Sounds like bypassing HMRC is the way forward.

Cheers, Rich

I think I was fortunate enough for my loan never to be mixed up with my pay or HMRC. Direct debit straight to the SLC, annual statements, and they stopped automatically exactly when I had predicted.

That's the old system. I had that, but it changed.