Can i get out of my student loan?!

ourgerry

Several years ago, while travelling, i had my wallet stolen. Upon return i requested my national insurance No. from the benifits office. By some mistake the sent me out a very similar no. with only 1 digit difference.

I now use that NI number for work but my student loan is under my old NI number. The Student loan Company only have my parents address as contact details. They've sent a letter asking if i am working and to prove my income or lack of.

Does anyone think that i can get out of my student loan?! and how?

Or should i just own up and pay?.... something i know i'll struggle financially to do.

Please help with the dilema?

Hippychick

Sorry to be blunt but you should pay, you borrowed the money so you should pay it back.

The amount payable is nominal anyway and is proportional to the amount you earn.

If the student loans company find out you have defrauded them then you will be fined for it.

Marcheline

Hi Gerry, aside from the moral issues involved with your question, I do not think it is possible to get out of paying your loan back. This is because your name is still the same as it was then (I assume) and they know where your parents live and will track you down through them eventually...these things tend come out in the wash!

I don't know about your financial situation, but I think the loan repayments will def be manageable. If you earn less than £15k, you're not obliged to pay anything back until you start earning over this threshold. If you earn over this amount, your payments are taken as a percentage of your wage (not sure of the exact amount, but as a rough guide, I was earning £21.5k and paying back in the region of £70/£90 per month, can't exactly remember now even though it was only a year ago!)

I'm not being judgemental here but to be honest, you should really have been anticipating this and saving a small amount of your wage to cover the future costs of the loan while they weren't asking for their money back!

Taiko

Unfortunately, you will be found out, even if it's not til much later. You've also signed a declaration stating you agree to notify the SLC of any changes in your details.

I've heard of this done just from my experience of working for an LEA, but if you've been found to try things like this, the SLC will ask for full payment of your outstanding debt straight away, which is also within the declaration you sign.

Mike1989

Having two national insurance numbers does not change the fact that they are addressed to the same person. So no, you cannot get out of it, and you should not be able to as it takes the rip out of those who have proper reasons to quit uni half way through a year and can't due to what it will cost them.

Oldernotwiser

ourgerry wrote: »

Several years ago, while travelling, i had my wallet stolen. Upon return i requested my national insurance No. from the benifits office. By some mistake the sent me out a very similar no. with only 1 digit difference.

I now use that NI number for work but my student loan is under my old NI number. The Student loan Company only have my parents address as contact details. They've sent a letter asking if i am working and to prove my income or lack of.

Does anyone think that i can get out of my student loan?! and how?

Or should i just own up and pay?.... something i know i'll struggle financially to do.

Please help with the dilema?

When did you take out your loans? You sound as if you might be on the old system.

ourgerry

Older not wiser: My loans were taken out from 2000 onwards so i think i'm on the new system....

Mike: before this turns into a trial of my character, i have not taken any decision yet.... nor do you know any of the details of my academic history.

This is an interesting quandry, both ethically and from a system perspective. it had not occured to me why i had received no communication from SLC since leaving university 2 years ago, then when i got a letter enquiring about how i was supporting myself.

Has anyone heard of the situation before of 2 NI numbers?

morg_monster

ourgerry - which digit is different? they are in the format
AB 12 34 56 C
I am betting it is the last letter (C here).
If it is then unfortunately for you the NI number part AB 12 34 56 is unique to every person so you can be identified just by that bit. They don't actually need the last letter and it may have changed on purpose to signify that you received a new NI card.
Also NI numbers are used for more than just student loans. If you HAD got a genuinely different number you could find yourself with other related problems down the line, say with state pensions, benefits, tax credits etc etc. What if your new NI number used to belong to some benefit fraudster or something and you inherited a bunch of problems from him!?!

finally it is not unusual not to receive communications from SLC until a few years after graduation. Sometimes it just takes a while.

Mike1989

ourgerry wrote: »

Mike: before this turns into a trial of my character, i have not taken any decision yet.... nor do you know any of the details of my academic history.

Erm I never accused your character or your academic history. I simply stated what any, or at least most students would say, if you borrowed the money back then you should pay it back.

That is what we all agree to when we request the loans for tuition fees or student loans for living costs etc. We sign a legal agreement to pay them back. So I am not judging you, just stating that you will have to pay them back.

farso

If you do not pay back the full amount by the end of 25 years then the debt is written off. Just need to stay well hidden for a while if you want to get out of paying!

ourgerry

Morg: It's the second numerical figure that has changed, so that's probably in my favour. It's still a pretty big gamble though.....