Repaying Student Loans 2009/10 guide discussion

nlh1309

Hi

I'm after some advice...

I have a post 98 student loan and have been paying back for about 8 years through PAYE. I am moving abroad and have looked into how to repay whilst abroad. The website advises that I have to provide evidence of my income. I am going to be working in Hong Kong and you have to pay back 9% above £9,000 (they seem to think HK is cheap to live when clearly it's not). Anyway this would mean I'd be paying back more than £400 a month. I would find this very hard as rent is so much and I will still be paying various things back in the UK.

The website also says that if you do not provide evidence you have to pay a fixed amount - about £150 a month which seems much more reasonable.

I want to continue paying and get it paid off but £400 odd seems an awful lot.

So my Q is- do you HAVE to provide evidence of how much you are earning?? Has anyone had any experience of this?

Thank you.

Poolie

You need to provide evidence of your working. This can be a copy of your contract. If your earning more than the threshold for the country then SLC would expect the standard 9% above the threshold. Divide it by 12 if you want a monthly figure. You can either pay one large amount which can be used as an offset otherwise you would need to pay money into a UK bank account for SLC to take the direct debit.

If you fail to provide evidence they will charge you the default interest amount onto your account ie £150 per month. Also they start tracing you which would mean admimistration charges and collection department getting in touch. Once your on that slope it is hard to get back and it will be marked on your SLC file permanently so they would be so helpful in the future.

I remember seeing accounts in this stage and they generally went straight up to the collections department to deal with and the admin charges and default interest were just piling up.

Oldernotwiser

nlh1309 wrote: »

Hi

I'm after some advice...

I have a post 98 student loan and have been paying back for about 8 years through PAYE. I am moving abroad and have looked into how to repay whilst abroad. The website advises that I have to provide evidence of my income. I am going to be working in Hong Kong and you have to pay back 9% above £9,000 (they seem to think HK is cheap to live when clearly it's not). Anyway this would mean I'd be paying back more than £400 a month. I would find this very hard as rent is so much and I will still be paying various things back in the UK.

The website also says that if you do not provide evidence you have to pay a fixed amount - about £150 a month which seems much more reasonable.

I want to continue paying and get it paid off but £400 odd seems an awful lot.

So my Q is- do you HAVE to provide evidence of how much you are earning?? Has anyone had any experience of this?

Thank you.

I posted this on the other thread - perhaps you missed it?

"By my calculations, if you have to be paying back £5,000 pa you'll need to be earning about £63,000; are you sure you've done the calculation correctly?"

Poolie

As oldnotwiser points out that would mean your looking at a salary of around 786,000 Hong Kong Dollars. You may want to check and confirm the numbers.

nlh1309

Thanks for your replies. Yes my calculations are correct.

I think I've misunderstood. I thought the £150 was a default amount that you had to pay if the SLC were unaware of actual earnings. However, the reply says that it is interest amount that is added per month.

Certainly don't want to get into trouble and end up paying back more. Just concerned about paying so much per month on top of everything else! Looks like it's just plain rice and noodles for me then!

Many thanks for the replies - most helpful.

nlh1309

It also shows a monthly default repayment amount - this is how much you would be liable to pay each month if you do not inform us of your actual income while overseas.

The above is pasted from SLC website. It does suggest that if you do not inform them of your earnings then you pay a default amount this month (which for HK is £147). Is that right or am I misundertsanding??

Poolie

nlh1309 wrote: »

It also shows a monthly default repayment amount - this is how much you would be liable to pay each month if you do not inform us of your actual income while overseas.

The above is pasted from SLC website. It does suggest that if you do not inform them of your earnings then you pay a default amount this month (which for HK is £147). Is that right or am I misundertsanding??

You are correct you would charged the default but they would also chase you for the correct information and you put yourself at risk of any policy charges as your really breaking the rules.

So your earnings are over £63k in HKG dollars?

Oldernotwiser

nlh1309 wrote: »

Thanks for your replies. Yes my calculations are correct.

I think I've misunderstood. I thought the £150 was a default amount that you had to pay if the SLC were unaware of actual earnings. However, the reply says that it is interest amount that is added per month.

Certainly don't want to get into trouble and end up paying back more. Just concerned about paying so much per month on top of everything else! Looks like it's just plain rice and noodles for me then!

Many thanks for the replies - most helpful.

Rice and noodles on that salary - you must be joking!

bananamania

hey, so I'm a current student, started in october 2009 and will finish in june 2012. I won't be hit by the fee rise, but I'm not sure if I'll be hit by the change in repayment, can anyone advise me as to what will happen? While the webpage clearly says that "existing loan holders" won't be affected, I'm not sure if that means me.
So, will have to repay with interest or am I saved from that too?

All the best,

J
:money:

Oldernotwiser

bananamania wrote: »

hey, so I'm a current student, started in october 2009 and will finish in june 2012. I won't be hit by the fee rise, but I'm not sure if I'll be hit by the change in repayment, can anyone advise me as to what will happen? While the webpage clearly says that "existing loan holders" won't be affected, I'm not sure if that means me.
So, will have to repay with interest or am I saved from that too?

All the best,

J
:money:

The website means what it says, existing students will stay on the current scheme for everything: fees, loans and repayment threshold.