Improvements to the Student Loan repayment process
17 August 2020
The Student Loans Company’s (SLC) Executive Director, Bernice McNaught, has put together an article, which discusses improvements that have been made to the service for individuals who are in repayment of their student loan.
The amendments have been made over the course of the last 18 months. More frequent data sharing (MFDS) has assisted in reducing the overall number of customers who end up over-repaying on their student loan and provides current balances for any individuals who repay via PAYE. Historically, repayment information was only shared between HMRC and SLC at the end of each tax year, meaning that those repaying could not access their up-to-date balance information. It also meant that some individuals ended up over-repaying their loans. As of April 2019, SLC and HMRC began to share repayment information each week.
Those who are in the final stages of their repayment term are advised to switch to direct debit to avoid over-repaying their student loan. The SLC has been working to ensure that every person repaying their student loan knows when to switch to direct debit, but for those who do end up over-repaying, the refund process has been improved. In 2019-20, the SLC refunded £60 million to those who had over-repaid their student loans. Following on from the introduction of MFDS, the amount of over-repayments and refunds have become more aligned, with SLC receiving just over £19 million in over-repayments, but refunding almost £16 million.
In March 2020, the SLC started to offer automatic refunds for any individuals they held up-to-date information for, meaning that those who did not switch to direct debit or claim a refund would receive the money they over-repaid back. This has, to date, refunded over £4 million.
Customers are also entitled to a refund in the event that their employer mistakenly starts taking deductions before the Statutory Repayment Due Date is reached. The SLC’s new online repayment service allows customers to identify this, and the SLC is investigating ways it can enhance its guidance to make it easier for the relevant individuals to request a refund.
In July 2020, the SLC launched a brand new Online Repayment Service (OLS), allowing those repaying a student loan to view their current outstanding balance. Since MFDS began, more up to date information relating to balances has been available. Previously, anyone repaying a student loan would only receive an annual statement displaying the balance of their loan which would be sent in the post.
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