Written off student loans be restarted?

hope4debtfree

hi guys,

i'm hoping someone could help ASAP! I went to university pre-1998 and i took out student loans.

I became very ill after leaving university and have been very ill for the last 10yrs. About 4 years ago 3 out of 4 of student loans were written off.

Only a few months ago I began to recover somewhat and have managed to get my first temporary job. Student loans company have now been in touch and have asked me to payback the 4th student loan as my total income is over the £2311 threshold (including salary + wtc + ctc + cb).

I'm happy to pay this, but then she said "oh you also have 3 other loans, with honours student loans and you may also have to repay them back too, so please get in touch with them". I explained that "those 3 loans were written-off, so how is it that now they can be restarted?" She said they can and most likely will be....

can anyone please clarify if Written-off student loans can be restarted again?

Hanky_Panky

Short answer - yes.

Written off doesn't mean you don't owe the money, it is just an accounting exercise for the lender - 'to write it off against bad debt'. This means that there is a high likelyhood they will not get paid any more money so do not have to pay tax on it. Subsequently though if you are in a position to make payments any credit they get means it goes straight into their 'profit' pot and obviuosly tax is then payable (for them).

I agree it can be misleading.

What my response doesn't deal with though is whether you should have to pay any money back due to the debt possibly being statute barred - for normal debt this is 6 years from the last admission of the debt or payment. I have no idea if this is the case for student loans.

hope4debtfree

thanks very much for clarifying that. I'm just worried that if i had to pay ALL student loans, i'd be in serious financial difficulty as i have a lot of outgoing costs to pay.

But if someone could clarify, then i'd be most grateful

Tixy

When you say they were written off can you clarify what you mean - did you have some correspondance from them to say that the loans were written off due to your circumstances and that you no longer owed the money and would not be pursued for the debt?

It will likely all depend on exactly what you have in writing from them.

hope4debtfree

yes tixy, at the time student loans were written off, i was so ill, that i was not capable of dealing with any paperwork myself. My wife became my carer and appointee and wrote to them explaining the situation, along with medical evidence. We then got in writing a letter stating that the 3 loans had been written off.

Tixy

Do you or wife still have that letter?
Depending on the wording you might well not have to repay the debts.

You have old style loans is that right?
Each year have you been deferring just the 1 loan that is left? not filling in deferral forms for the others?

hope4debtfree

i just had a quick look and the bad news is that the letters have been misplaced . The only letter i found is when after cancelling, a year or two later, they by mistake sent a new letter in 2008 asking for the money.

My wife chased this up in Mar 2008 and was told by the person to ignore any correspondence from them as the loans have definitely been written-off/cancelled and the computer automatically generated this. My wife wrote the person's details/ext no. down as well as what he discussed with her.

somethingcorporate

See if you can get something in writing, otherwise you may be on a sticky wicket.

Other outgoings are largely irrelevant when it comes to student loans, when you earn over a certain amount they become payable - the rest of your lifestyle is not taken into account. The "new" style loans you do not get a choice, it comes out of your pay before you get given it.

Tixy

I'd wait to see if they do start chasing for the other 3 loans at all.

If they do at that point you could do a £10 subject access request - which should result in you getting a copy of the letter they sent to you previously as well as everything else about your loans.

hope4debtfree

@ somethingcorporate - i don't want to chase them up as then it's guaranteed they will come after me.

@ tixy - thanks...your right...best bet is to wait and see if they contact me and if they do, then i'll do the SAR for £10.

Once again thanks very much for your help and advice.