Student Loan Help Regarding Missing Payments (maybe my fault!!)

wordgetsaround

Hi all,
I recently had a statement through from the SLC showing all of my statements for my previous payments. The statement showed that I had zero payments made in year 2013-2014. This is very strange as I was employed with the same employer from 2011-2015, and the statement shows that I made full payments in the years before and after. I can actually distinctly remember making payments in that financial year as I was working away on an elevated rate and couldn't believe the monthly deductions that were being made! Unfortunately during a house move a couple of years ago I got rid of my old P60's and payslips etc, believing that I had no use for such 'old' information. 

I have contacted SLC and HMRC and both are stating that they can't help me as I dont have any payslips or P60s to prove my argument, but they have agreed with my logic that it is strange to have no payments in that year, but full payments in the surrounding years. Even more frustratingly, the company that I was working for at the time has since gone bust and all traces have disappeared. 

Is anybody aware of my rights in this situation, or aware of any further action I can take to try and reclaim this money that I am certain I paid? Any help would be hugely appreciated as I'm sure it would be worth a couple of thousand pounds

Many thanks!! 

sheramber

Does nobody check on why student loan repayments are not being paid over to HMRC?

[Deleted User]

wordgetsaround said:

Hi all,
I recently had a statement through from the SLC showing all of my statements for my previous payments. The statement showed that I had zero payments made in year 2013-2014. This is very strange as I was employed with the same employer from 2011-2015, and the statement shows that I made full payments in the years before and after. I can actually distinctly remember making payments in that financial year as I was working away on an elevated rate and couldn't believe the monthly deductions that were being made! Unfortunately during a house move a couple of years ago I got rid of my old P60's and payslips etc, believing that I had no use for such 'old' information. 

I have contacted SLC and HMRC and both are stating that they can't help me as I dont have any payslips or P60s to prove my argument, but they have agreed with my logic that it is strange to have no payments in that year, but full payments in the surrounding years. Even more frustratingly, the company that I was working for at the time has since gone bust and all traces have disappeared. 

Is anybody aware of my rights in this situation, or aware of any further action I can take to try and reclaim this money that I am certain I paid? Any help would be hugely appreciated as I'm sure it would be worth a couple of thousand pounds

Many thanks!! 

Hi there!

I'm afraid the responsibility is on you to maintain your finances and produce evidence of your claim.

While it's 'unusual' that you paid in the years either side of the year in question, but not that year itself it isn't unheard of. There are two questions I have that might shed some light on the situation.

You say 'working away', were you working abroad? If so, during that time were you still deemed a UK employee, paying tax here in the UK etc?

If say, for example, you were working for JP Morgan for arguments sake in the UK and were then seconded out to the US as a US employee and paying US tax etc, then your employer may well have mistakenly taken deductions from you, but they would be refunded to you 'in year' at the time because you weren't a UK Tax Payer at the time and so technically wouldn't have been due to repay your loan via PAYE (without getting bogged down in particulars, you would have been expected to repay direct to SLC for the time you were earning 'away').

If you were still in the UK, but seconded elsewhere in the countrh repayments should still have been taken but your employer may have erroneously refunded you 'in year' too on the (wrong) assumption you shouldn't have repaid so much because your increased salary was only temporary - note: your repayments would still have been due on the higher income, and would have been correct.

Either scenario aside, contact SLC and ask them if your 'repayment file' for the relevant tax year is finalised. If not, ask them to query it with HMRC. This is your right. If they have already queried it in the past, but HMRC have no record of those repayments then this is where the evidence is necessary, and why it is important to retain your documentation.

If, as you say, SLC claim they are unable to query the file and offer rational other than 'we have already queried it and HMRC have no record of those repayments' then formalise your complaint for investigation.

Again though, if HMRC don't hold the record then they have basically never received it from your employer. You could go down the laborious process of checking the public records for whichever organisation handled the administration or liquidation of your former employer - they may still hold record of their Payroll Accounts in which case you can arrange with them to either get evidence, or possibly discuss next steps with HMRCs Employer Helpline if they need to submit details to HMRC themselves.

You do need to need to be prepared though, if you cannot submit evidence to prove your claim, then you will continue to repay your loan until it is repaid in full as is and accept that those 'missing repayments' are gone.