Statute Barred Student Loan?

DumbBunny

Hi
Confused newbie asking for help to make sure I have understood replies right. If I'm on the wrong forum, I'm sorry and will someone please tell me. I took out student loans as a mature student - course finished in 1996. For quite a long time I was below the threshold but started to pay the loan back early. I moved bank account and the standing order never transferred. I suffer from ostrich syndrome where bank statements are concerned and got into debt and stopped opening things because my husband was off sick and did not get paid. I am now paying off my defaulted bank loans and overdraft (slowly) and am being chased very aggressively on the student loan by H L Legal on behalf of Capquest. They sent a letter saying they were sending someone to the house - I was very frightened because my husband is suffering from depression and it would have made him much worse if that had happened so I telephoned and made a payment. I am now 51 and according to some of the posts this is statute barred even though I have made a payment. I cannot afford to pay any more than I am already paying at the moment and they were very very nasty on the telephone. Please can someone tell me if it is statute barred and if so what I should write to them as all the letters I can find on the site refer to not having made a payment.

Loan is £2,500 remaining. Praying hard someone can give me some good news. Thanks for a great site and a really useful forum.

DB

Ames

What kind of student loan was it? Was it one from the student loans company (ie the government) or was it from a commercial company?

DumbBunny

Hi Ames

Government - Student Loans Company - filled in the forms at College.

DB

fermi

Link: Factsheet | Liability for Debts and the Limitation Act (England/Wales)

Student loans

Student loan agreements are simple contracts and this gives the Student Loans Company (SLC) six years from the date you last paid or acknowledged the debt to go to court to enforce the agreement. There are two sorts of student loans and different rules apply depending upon when you took out the loan.

Old style student loans

Old style or 'mortgage' student loans are consumer credit agreements. Payments cannot automatically be deducted from your wages. The SLC has to go to court before they can enforce the debt against you. This means that the Limitation Act can apply if you have not paid or acknowledged the debt for over six years.

WARNING Asking for the loan to be deferred could count as acknowledging the debt and start time running again.

New style student loans

From September 1998 new style or 'income contingent' student loans include rules to say that repayments will be automatically deducted directly from your wages or through your tax return if you are self-employed. This means that the SLC are still allowed to take money from your wages for a loan over six years old as they do not have to go to court to do so.

And:

If you have started to make payments on a debt where there was more than a six-year gap then it is probably unenforceable. Phone us for advice.

A payment after the 6 years should not "unbar" the debt.

However, if you are thinking of taking this tack with Student Loans then it would be a very very good idea to talk this through with a professional debt advisor.

National Debtline who compiled the above factsheet are good. Call, free on 0808 808 4000.

Broken_hearted

As SL wern't writtern off in Bankruptsy I though they stayed enforceable.

fermi

Broken_hearted wrote: »

As SL wern't writtern off in Bankruptsy I though they stayed enforceable.

There was a specific change in the bankruptcy laws 4/5 years ago that makes that now the case in bankruptcy. That change is specific to bankruptcy, and has no relevance to 'statute barred' debts and the Limitation Act.

Broken_hearted

I have about £4,000 in student loans which I don't even count as debt as they'll never be repaid. It would be great if they'd just go away.