Struggling to get payments set up again

ses2018 · 8 March 2018 at 12:29PM

OK my main problem with the student loans company is after more than 6 months after I started a new job I still have not been able to get them to send a 'start notice' to my employer so my payments can start to come out of my salary.

I've never had this issue before but there was some problem which resulted in this not happening automatically when I changed jobs. I phoned HMRC who directed me to the student loans company who I've had several lengthy phone calls with to sort this out. Most recently I was informed it would be taken care of, but it still isn't resolved.

Has anyone else had significant problems with the student loans company lately?

The staff while professional seem to not be empowered to do anything to help. It seems like they have significant systematic problems in the organisation. Most recently I have been unable to login to the online system receiving numerous different errors after logging with the correct credentials.

This is frustrating to say the least and I feel the only way forward now is to lodge an official letter of complaint so they will be forced into doing something about the problem I have. If anyone has any other advice I'd be grateful to hear it. I really think given we are talking about an organisation responsible for managing debt on a large scale the level of 'customer service' is appalling and it is a big worry that at an organisational level they seem completely incompetent.

ses2018 · 8 March 2018 at 12:41PM

Interestingly I've now got into their online system and there is a way to setup a regular payment by debit card / direct debit. I have decided for now to set this up, since setting up a payment from my salary seems to be beyond them at the moment but I will still be lodging a formal complaint. I don't want that debt sitting there accruing interest with the way things have been going it wouldn't surprise me if the concept of this debt being written off if its not paid off by a certain time is scrapped!

Lokolo · 8 March 2018 at 2:28PM

Have you told your employer that you should be repaying the loan?

Their payroll system will connect to HMRC and instead of you getting HMRC to pull the student loan collections, your employer can push them through.

This is what your employer should have done when you joined

https://www.gov.uk/new-employee/student-loans

Did you have a previous job this tax year? If so, did you hand in your P45 when starting? If not, did you fill in a new starter checklist?

When did you graduate? If you graduated summer '17 then you won't start repaying until after April. (I am assuming this isn't the case as you mention you've changed jobs and it hasn't been an issue before)

Struggling to get payments set up again

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