Student Loans Company - AHHHHHHHHHH!

polus_

In mid July I paid off my student loan (4k left) and received confirmation shortly after. I specifically asked what was the easiest way (as I know they need to send a stop notice to my employer), so a final amount due was calculated and I paid that off. As Julys wage was taken into account and I got an unexpected pay rise, there was a discrepancy of £25 so I sent proof and asked for a cheque to be sent.

August payday came and the deductions for the loan continued. After several phone calls they assured me a stop notice had been sent but my employer has not sent one. I decided to wait until Septembers wage to check that the deductions had stopped, which they haven’t. I’ve phone up again and another stop notice was sent (apparently none were registered on the system) callback was promised to sort the outstanding money problem out, which was 2 days ago.

Meanwhile I’ve received a letter from the HMRC to state that I will have to claim £25 back through self-assessment.

To say I’m royally !!!!ed off would be an understatement. They own over £450 and no one is even remotely interested in paying it back yet if the situation was reversed I’m sure fines and threats would be flying through the door. I don’t want to claim back through self-assessment as its months away.

What I would like is a cheque or direct bank transfer ASAP but who to contact about this, the SLC blame HMRC and my company says its nothing to-do with them. HMRC are useless.

[FONT=&quot]Can I start adding charges to the amount until it is received back in my bank account?[/FONT]

CG19a

The way student loans are collected are a farce. My old flatmate works for them and he told me that they only ever really know what you have paid up until the April of the last financial year, as they only get the info once a year from the Inland Revenue. Even at that, it took the IR 15 months once to tell the SLC what I had paid for a certain year.

If you have paid off your loan mid cycle, it takes at least 40 days for a stop notice to be issued, since it has to go from SLC, to IR, to your employer. As far as I'm aware though, if you phone the SLC talk them through your payslips they can issue a refund, but you might have to send in payslips as evidence of overpaying.

polus_

I was not informed of this 42 day notice. The reason I had them include July's payment was to avoid this. Besides, that gave them 40 days notice.

The problem I have is that its avoidable (and not my problem). They could, when someone rings up wanting to clear it, explain this complete mess of a system and say 'this is how much you owe, well send a stop notice, then send you a final amount when the stop notice is confirmed, you then ring up or login and pay this final amount'. If the person doesnt clear the loan within a month after the confirmation they just start it up again.

What they are doing is now into the realms of stealing. They are depriving me of money and time with little recourse. I have already sent some payslips for the small descrepancy, then some more for the first months screw up, but now need to send more and havent received a penny back!

I cant believe this is allowed to go on...

the_hatter_2

Hi,

I recently also paid of my student loan, and due to bonus from work made a significant over payment at the same time.

I called the SLC, gave them all the payments I had made for this tax year, they calculated my exact over payment and fired off a stop notice to HMRC and my employer. Luckily my deductions stopped after one month - so only an additional months payment extra taken from me!

I waited one more month to check no more money was being deducted for my repaid student loan, at that point I photocopied ALL of my pay slips for this financial year and sent them to the SLC along with a cover letter requesting the overpayment be credited to my bank account (supplied details of this separately to them over the phone). I wait about a week and then called the SLC - they confirmed they had received my letter and it was waiting to be reviewed, the lady I spoke to on the phone asked if I could wait five minutes on hold why she did this for me, well obviously I could wait if I meant I got my money back! After a couple of minutes she came back and informed me I should have the money in my account in 3 - 5 days!

Three (working) days later the money was in my account ready to be spent :beer:

So anyway, it was a bit of a hassle but I played the SLC's game, did everything they required me to do and got my refund! When they sent the stop notice they told me this can take up to three months! so you should be prepared to wait at least this long before hassling for the stop to take effect. I think the SLC is at the mercy of HMRC for the stop to happen....

edit: Let me also add that my student loan's were taken from 1998 - 2001, I don't know if the process differs for loans taken pre-98 or even more recently.

CG19a

polus_ wrote: »

I was not informed of this 42 day notice. The reason I had them include July's payment was to avoid this. Besides, that gave them 40 days notice.

The problem I have is that its avoidable (and not my problem). They could, when someone rings up wanting to clear it, explain this complete mess of a system and say 'this is how much you owe, well send a stop notice, then send you a final amount when the stop notice is confirmed, you then ring up or login and pay this final amount'. If the person doesnt clear the loan within a month after the confirmation they just start it up again.

What they are doing is now into the realms of stealing. They are depriving me of money and time with little recourse. I have already sent some payslips for the small descrepancy, then some more for the first months screw up, but now need to send more and havent received a penny back!

I cant believe this is allowed to go on...

They won't send out the stop notice first, because then you could decide not to pay it off and it can cause loads of problems. Its such a crap system for collecting the money from everyone.

pinkneonmartini

The problem with the way the funds are transferred is that your employer pays it through PAYE to HMRC as a form of tax, the funds and info are then passed to SLC. Your employer has no powers once they've paid the PAYE, and HMRC act as a holding account only. SLC can't issue a refund because technically it has been deducted through a taxation scheme and therefore has to applied for in the same way you'd apply for a tax refund (Self assessment) It's pants!

It's taken me three years to get them to start taking deductions from me, but luckily i run our internal payroll so the second my little homemade spreadsheet says i'm done i can issue my own stop notice lol

polus_

This is really getting on my wick. They have finally acknowledged that I have overpaid, significantly, but despite me specifically asking them to credit the money back to my account, they won’t stating that the HMRC has it and its not their problem and ill have to claim it back through self-assessment. :mad:

Trying to get in touch with the right person at the HMRC is the biggest pain and what’s more; they are floundering about going on about reassessing tax - !!!!!!?

So, I pay off a loan and then have to wait 9 months to get £500 back that they owe me!

I really am lost for words. Labour has introduced record numbers of staff in public sector, specifically services like the HMRC and frankly it seems at the moment that they could organize a ****-up in a brewery. As for the SLC, I couldnt give a flying **** what there issue is, I took out a loan with *them*, I paid it back in full, following there procedure and specifically asking what I could do to make sure this issue didn’t occur.

Right, I’m off to punch a few inanimate objects. :mad::mad::mad::mad:

JamesBlue_3

polus_ wrote: »

In mid July I paid off my student loan (4k left) and received confirmation shortly after. I specifically asked what was the easiest way (as I know they need to send a stop notice to my employer), so a final amount due was calculated and I paid that off. As Julys wage was taken into account and I got an unexpected pay rise, there was a discrepancy of £25 so I sent proof and asked for a cheque to be sent.

August payday came and the deductions for the loan continued. After several phone calls they assured me a stop notice had been sent but my employer has not sent one. I decided to wait until Septembers wage to check that the deductions had stopped, which they haven’t. I’ve phone up again and another stop notice was sent (apparently none were registered on the system) callback was promised to sort the outstanding money problem out, which was 2 days ago.

Meanwhile I’ve received a letter from the HMRC to state that I will have to claim £25 back through self-assessment.

To say I’m royally !!!!ed off would be an understatement. They own over £450 and no one is even remotely interested in paying it back yet if the situation was reversed I’m sure fines and threats would be flying through the door. I don’t want to claim back through self-assessment as its months away.

What I would like is a cheque or direct bank transfer ASAP but who to contact about this, the SLC blame HMRC and my company says its nothing to-do with them. HMRC are useless.

[FONT=&quot]Can I start adding charges to the amount until it is received back in my bank account?[/FONT]

The student loans company are more trouble than their worth! My Missus has had sooooo much trouble with them - we have lost count of the times.... THEY HAVEN'T HELPED!!!

James :rolleyes:

polus_

This just gets better. Phoned HMRC who have been very helpful but the way the student loans company have screwed this up, I wownt be able to claim the money back until January 2011.

IWantToBeFree_2

I would be very surprised if that is the case. My hubby finished paying his loan earlier this year, he simply wrote a letter to SLC, included his last SL statement and his pay slips since then and the money was in the bank account within a few weeks. Someone is telling you lies somewhere down the line, it really doesn't have to be difficult to get the money back.

Poolie

If your that unhappy why do you not formally complain to SLC?