SA (mis)calculation of student loan repayments in final year of repayment

sly_dog_jonah

Last tax year my income contingent student loan was close to being paid off completely via employer deductions. SLC wrote to me advising I could avoid overpaying the loan by switching to a Direct Debit arrangement which would ensure only the amount due would be paid, and they would send a stop notice to my employer to no longer make student loan deductions.

Sounded sensible, so I signed up for DD and they eventually sent my employer the stop notice and deductions stopped. My end of year P60 correctly noted my PAYE student loan deductions of just under £1.2k. I made one DD payment of £260 and then a final payment via credit card over the phone to settle the loan (just under £400) and cancelled the Direct Debit. I logged in today to the SLC repayment website and my account is in credit to the tune of £0.02, so SLC think my loan is done and dusted.

Tonight I've been doing my Self-assessment for the 2012/13 tax year. I've entered the employer deductions correctly, but the final calculation of tax due has apparently ignored my employers deductions (I'm guessing because they are less than would have been due if the stop notice had not been issued) and the fact the loan is paid off. It says over £2k of student loan repayments are due (which is significant larger than the outstanding loan at the beginning of the tax year) and that NONE has been paid, therefore has landed me with a £2k+ bill due in 4 days.

What is the point of switching to DD repayments if it means not only your direct payments but also your employers repayments have been ignored in SA? :mad:

I'm going to call HMRC tomorrow but I don't hold out much hope of getting this resolved before Friday.

Edit: finally dug out and old thread describing very similar situation: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2171697 4 years on and the same 'anomaly' exists in HMRC's unfit systems.