Guidance for Software Developers for April 2019 – Student Loans
16 November 2018
Post Graduate Student Loans (PGL) will begin to come into repayment from April 2019 and guidance for software developers has been updated that seeks to make clear what steps should be taken in the event that the protected earnings figure is at risk of being breached to ensure that the software and the employer knows which repayment will take priority in this event.
In the event of a priority attachment of earnings order with protected earnings is also in operation, the loan deductions are restricted so that the remaining pay cannot be reduced below the protected earnings amount. From April 2019 where both a Student Loan (Plan 1 or Plan 2) and a Postgraduate Loan are in operation, loan deductions must be allocated first to the Postgraduate Loan as it has a higher rate of interest.
The New Starter Checklist has been updated and issued to software developers to enable them to update their software products as required. It remains the responsibility of the employee to notify the employer which plan types are in operation. The P45 will not be adapted to take account of the differing plan types and so both the P45 (where provided which helps to identify which tax code to use) and the new starter checklist should be used when taking on a new employee.