Student loan chasing £89 six years after debt cleared

sammylou100

Hello MSE people, would love a bit of advice please.

In 2009 I cleared my Student Loan (taken out in 2002), I inherited some money & paid off an initial chunk in 2006 & then carried on paying out of my wages up to 2009. Early in 2009 the SLC decided that I had made all necessary payments and stopped deducting money from my wages.

Earlier this year I got a call on my mobile from a man saying he worked at Student Loans, he told me that I had underpaid by £80 and asked if he could take the payment. It seemed a bit fishy so I politely declined.

Today I received an email from them, so I called Student Loans (I checked that they were who they say they are & got the proper number from Google). They are saying that in 2009 the debt was miscalculated and I owed £83, they have also added £6 interest. I am astounded as I didn't call them for a final balance, they stopped taking the money, this miscalculation is entirely their mistake. I queried the '6 year life of debt' but apparently as they are a Government agency this is irrelevant. They have had my current address at all times as they have my NI number and I have been working this whole time, paying a mortgage etc, not hiding under their radar, yet they have only just gotten in contact. When I declined to make this payment they told me it would just come out of my next month's wage.

I suspect I am backed into a corner here, but can anyone advise on whether there is any way around this? In all honesty I don't still have the paperwork to prove how much I have paid as it's 6 - 7 years old, so I can't check what they are saying and they have never sent me a breakdown of what I owe. Just a bit shocked to hear from them now.