Student Loan Error

bd107

Hi, I am currently being faced with a bill from HMRC in to the thousands because of an error my employer made with regards to student loan repayments.

When I joined, I told them I had to pay my student loans. I noticed that the payments were not being taken and I followed up on email to our head of finance. I've since learned that HMRC had sent out twice the instruction to begin taking payment. I told them again but still no payment was taken from my wages.

I am now faced with this bill I have to pay by the end of Jan, but don't feel I should pay when it was the companies fault. What can I do? What are my rights?

spadoosh

Your employer can get in trouble for not applying a student loan deduction. However that will serve little benefit to you. They wont be told to make a payment on behalf of you nor will they be told to reimburse you.

They can only deduct payments under HMRC instruction.

The debt is your as such you are the one liable for it. You wouldve paid it anyway over the months so unsure why you think you dont need to pay now. Its generally suggested in instances such as this where your not paying for something you think you should be is to keep the money aside as more often than not people come chasing it.

If your employer had been making the deductions but not passing it on you would have a much better argument and probably wouldnt have to pay it but they haven tbeen making deductions so youve got all the money they shouldve been taking.

Comms69

You got the money, you knew it was owed, you spent it.

sangie595

Comms69 wrote: »

You got the money, you knew it was owed, you spent it.

Short, but accurate I'm afraid. You knew you had repayments, and the employers error doesn't change that fact. And you proved you knew by telling them they hadn't taken it. So you should have set aside the money, and if you didn't, it's hard to fault anyone but you. If you set aside the money, you can pay. If you. didn't, you spent the money knowing it wasn't yours. Either way you don't have a leg to stand on.

steampowered

If you knew the money wasn't been taken, why didn't you put it aside instead of spending it?

The company is not going to be paying your student loan for you.