Urgent advice - Student Loans Co chasing already paid debt from years ago...

CanISortThisMessOut

Hi all, I hope some-one can give me some advice on how to handle this.

My partner took out a student loan in 1997 for £1500. He paid it off in full at the end of 1999/beginning of 2000, cannot remember the dates, cannot remember if it was one or a few installments, as he had other loans.

He received a letter about two months ago from SLC saying that he had an outstanding balance of this amount. My mum then passed away so the letter was not dealt with. My DP did not think it oo urgent has this had been paid and was obviously an admin error.

However last week he received a letter from a credit agency saying he owes £4,500 and that he had to pay immediately. He did not call them, decided to write a letter, again thinking it was not too urgent (he does not do 'urgent'). However two days ago, less than a week after this second letter was received, a card was posted through the door saying a representative had been around and he was to call a number to avoid further action. Did not say what it was for, or to do with. He called them and it was this credit agency, sending round the bailiffs! He told them that he had paid his original debt years ago.

Since 2000 he has had no contact with or from the SLC, no letters to say outstanding balance, so request for payment that he needed to deal with. As it is so long ago, he has no record of payment, or proof of the total debt he originally owed. The bank which he paid from was closed as he took out a 'grown up' account. He was under the impression, as was I, that records did not need to be kept that long, so we both only keep records for max 3 years (or else we would be awash with paperwork!).

Is there anything he can do? How can he sort this, as he cannot prove he paid, and they are saying he does. The credit agency has suspended the account for a week as DP said he will get advice.