ERUDIO student loans help

erudioed

I was actually under the impression that the only figure controlled is the interest rate...but that isnt really that important to us because we are coming to the later stages of our loan agreement. I, maybe wrongly, and the reason why i am quite !!!!ed, is that the threshold is just a random figure they can change at any time. Maybe i am wrong about that, and if i am, maybe half the country started getting paid the minimum wage during the last year, leading to a £2000 average drop in some average figure that they use to work out such things. Or they decided to reject the top and bottom 5% of earners (with the top 5% accounting for the lionshare) on the average income scale to calculate the threshold.
Maybe Anna will be able to sift fact from fiction about what is used to calculate the deferment threshold (if anything is).

anna2007

Lungboy wrote: »

I can't find anything at all from the government on how they actually calculate the deferment threshold. The current threshold assumes a national average wage of ~£33852, if my rudimentary maths skills are correct, while the new threshold works out to an average wage of ~£31444. Using the ONS weekly average wage value and multiplying by 52 doesn't come close to either of these values, it's significantly lower than both.

e: the only thing i can think of is that the 85% is worked out on full-time national average, whereas all the published figures that I can find appear to include everyone. I can't find full-time-only figures, although I'll keep looking.

Cross post Lungboy, I couldn't work out the ONS figures either, but the earnings figure must be linked to RPI, which will push it up (except for 2010 when it dropped)?

Lungboy

One other thing to note is that wages, when inflation adjusted, have fallen, which would fit with a deferment cap drop. However, that's been true now for several years, not just this past year, so you'd expect to see a series of threshold drops if they were using inflation-adjusted values. Maybe they just switched to them this year?

e: of course, even with the inflation-adjusted figures, you don't get anywhere close to the threshold values. It's baffling.

anna2007

On my phone and can't seem to access the ONS tables, will have another look when I get home.

anna2007

The only reference I can find to full-time average earnings is in the ONS Annual Survey of Hours & Earnings, the most recent being for April 2013 (provisional):

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/ashe/annual-survey-of-hours-and-earnings/2013-provisional-results/stb-ashe-statistical-bulletin-2013.html#tab-Annual-earnings

Looking back, the average earnings over the last few years are:

April 2013 27,000

April 2012 26,500

April 2011 26,100

April 2010 25,900

April 2009 25,800

Bearing in mind that the deferment level's set at 85% of average earnings, there has to be something else factored in to the Government's calculations (possibly unemployment and social security benefits, as according to the info on the old SLC website that Lungboy linked to, these are included).

Something's obviously changed in the way it's calculated (to the borrower's detriment/Erudio's benefit), but we can't work out what that is without knowing what else is included.

Unless Lungboy or someone else can figure it out, I think we're back to the FOI request... any takers?

ericctheking

Just ask your employers to pay you less in the month you apply for derferment and more in the other months.
Sticks to the terms and conditions.
two can play these sneaky games.

erudioed

anna2007 wrote: »

Something's obviously changed in the way it's calculated (to the borrower's detriment/Erudio's benefit), but we can't work out what that is without knowing what else is included.

Very true. Could i hazard a guess though. Before November last year BIS, Zach Lewy and the invisible Mark Filer, alongside a number of lawyers, were discussing the sale of mortgage style loans after passing some kind of due diligence test. They passed this test because the people at BIS new Zach Lewy and all about how successful Arrow Global are deemed to be at buying debt and pressuring people to pay up.
During that conversation, the subject of lowering the deferment threshold came up, and after ebbing and flowing between seniors in BIS, they decided that they would lower the threshold...but only after the sale had been announced and Erudio had started trading for business. They also promised that from now on, until all the mortgage style loans have expired, that there would only be decreases in the deferment level, year on year, making more people ineligible to defer their loans. BIS promised they had Arrow Global's back, all in a nudge nudge wink wink kind of way.
How can anyone consider this to be anything other than something pre-agreed. It is a decision just for Arrow/Erudio.
Someone just twatted my twatter account and said its a 7% reduction.
I know most of the journalism has been rather forgiving to BIS and not really suggestive of any kind of government complicity but it is time for some serious journalists to start asking questions and demanding answers. Someone needs to be made an example of, and i hope that isnt you and me alone, hopefully someone will stand up for us is we start peppering them again.

Sarebear78

Have done my FOI request - hope it is ok

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/details_of_guidance_given_to_uni/new

I also did one for the deferral threshold too:

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/figures_used_to_calculate_deferm/new

Hope it is all ok...... eek.

erudioed

Heres some banter you might be interested in somewhere near the top:
https://twitter.com/simonnread/status/499194416234778625

erudioed

Superb sarebear78! Thank you for posing those FOI request for us all.