student loan discrepancy

mp80

got a letter off SLC saying i had a payment discrepancy of 1500 quid

some investigation later, i found my former employer (who have since gone bust) failed to make any payments to HMRC despite the deductions coming out of my wages. as far as i was concerned the debt had been repaid. i'm pretty annoyed about this - what can i do? i don't have the payslips from this period anymore (goes back to 2003)

will this likely get written off?

delderek

The short answer would be Yes however I dare say you'll need to jump through a few HMRC hoops in order to satisfy them that you are not at it.

HMRC are the people you'll have to contact though. SLC will be powerless.

financial_warrior

Yet another reason why the Government shouldn't be allowing the SLC to share repayment information and supposed defaults with the credit reference agencies... They're going to try and do this in the next few months!

Join the campaign to stop this happening until the Government brings the SLC under the regulation of the FSA and FOS.

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=37098460872

Downing Street Petition: http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/studentdefaults/

melancholly

financial_warrior wrote: »

Yet another reason why the Government shouldn't be allowing the SLC to share repayment information and supposed defaults with the credit reference agencies... They're going to try and do this in the next few months!

Join the campaign to stop this happening until the Government brings the SLC under the regulation of the FSA and FOS.

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=37098460872

Downing Street Petition: http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/studentdefaults/

just out of interest, where have the government laid out this plan? i've not heard anything about it before, which is surprising.... i don't like signing any petitions until i've seen all the information but if they are trying it, writing to your MP may be more productive than a petition...... it sounds like a stupid policy change to me.

financial_warrior

Already done that... Jeremy Corbyn MP (Lab) is supporting me, and is putting pressure on the Universities Minister to address the SLC's unfair status as an unregulated financial institution. The petition and Facebook group are extra lines of attack, as well as being great ways of raising awareness about the issue. Not all legislative decision making gets the press coverage it deserves.

Oldernotwiser

mp80 wrote: »

got a letter off SLC saying i had a payment discrepancy of 1500 quid

some investigation later, i found my former employer (who have since gone bust) failed to make any payments to HMRC despite the deductions coming out of my wages. as far as i was concerned the debt had been repaid. i'm pretty annoyed about this - what can i do? i don't have the payslips from this period anymore (goes back to 2003)

will this likely get written off?

You'll have to provide some proof of this; they won't just take your word for it. Did he pay NICs and tax on your behalf as well?

melancholly

ok, that's great - but where is the planned policy change? i'd be interested in seeing what it says rather than relying on someone else's interpretation of it (i just don't like putting my name to anything without knowing more about it than a paragraph on facebook!)

silvercar

If HMRC are not chasing you for the tax then they have acknowledged that the tax has been paid, so chances are that they will acknowledge that the student loan payments have been made also.

Although you should keep tax records for 7 years (and SLC along with it I would suggest), HMRC will have records. Try contacting your tax office for evidence of the SLC payments.

The system doesn't allow an employer to make the tax payments to HMRC without the SLC payments as its all bound up in the same system, so the record will be there.

Your hassle will be convincing SLC that they are a creditor of the bankrupt company rather than you. If HMRC have accepted that they are a creditor (which they appear to have done if they are not chasing you for the tax), then SLC should by rights do the same.

mp80

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

You'll have to provide some proof of this; they won't just take your word for it. Did he pay NICs and tax on your behalf as well?

Yes, I was a regular PAYE employee for 4 years.

My final P60 for the period 2006/2007 (I left the company in March 2007) shows 0.00 in the student loan section.

P60

Total for year - £24,407.87 (my base salary was £23k at the time this includes overtime and bonus)
Total tax deducted - £4,010.16 (which seems correct)
NIC deductions - £2131.36 (which seems correct)

I have a payslip which shows:

Salary 1916.67
Student loan deduction 60.00
Tax paid 307.80
N/I 164.66
NET pay 1384.21


There's been some creative accounting going on here.