Student Loans Company - Overseas Repayment

meddlesomemarmots

I've just been looking over my recent situation, and wondered if anyone else had any problems in dealing with the Student Loans Company with this regard (which is unlikely - I think many overseas graduates try and skip their loans altogether which is definitely something I'm not interested in, let alone crunch the numbers on their annual repayment assessment).

Basically, I have an income-contingent style loan from pre-2012 (the ones where your payment is at 9% of salary above an inflation adjusted 15,000 GBP). International assessment is usually conducted around January each year (which involves applying the 15,000 GBP to a threshold level for the country you are living in - and determining the 9% repayment).

The issue I'm having is that the Student Loans Company back dates the exchange rate for this calculation. For example - the assessment for payments to be made for 2015-16 would be done would using the 2013 annual exchange rate. In my situation, the currency of the country I'm now in has devalued against the pound by almost 20%. From my line of thinking, I am losing out twice here - as the higher value being placed on my local currency in their assessment creates a higher monthly payment than if using a more current exchange rate, and also as I'm making my monthly repayment in the current (i.e. less valuable) valuation, which has lost 20% against the pound. By my calculations this results in a payment significantly higher than the 9% repayment amount which was advertised when the loan was sold. I understand that exchange rate swings work both ways - however I'm not sure I'm happy paying well over the advertised 9% in the hope that the pound will weaken against my currency again.

I have questioned the SLC regarding this, although received very little in terms of rationale, other than it is a matter of streamlining the administrative work they do on their end, which I can fully appreciate. I'm just questioning at what point responsibility should be directed at the SLC, when their policies are affecting a loan which was, at the end of the day, sold to consumers on the basis of being income contingent (or alternatively, am I just expecting way too much of the Student Loans Company?).