Student Loan Company

peter_the_piper

Daughter has outstanding loan and she has been living in the far east for 10 years. the current repayment rate for her should be £98.60 per month with a starting salary of about £8000. She does exceed this and has been paying the amount on the government site since being abroad. This January they asked her to confirm her circumstances which she did in writing and we have now received a letter saying the repayment amount should now be £250.00 per month and she owes them £1797.

1) can they just up the sum this way ?

2) The outstanding amount has just appeared from nowhere.

3) she has asked them for a breakdown on this amount but they can't/won't give her one.

She's not going to pay them instantly as she's moving back to UK in July so will be able to phone them far more cheaply than Khazakhstan where she is currently residing.

Can anyone shed any light on this mystery.

TadleyBaggie

And the question is?

peter_the_piper

Sorry, error on the post which I have now corrected.

Sandtree

Which version of the student loan does she have? Has she been doing her annual overseas income declarations? 

If they believe she has underpaid due to not filling in the declarations etc then they probably can charge the underpayments once the correct figures come to light. 

If she's been over there for 10 years how has she not sorted out a cheap way to call back home yet (eg VOIP)? Adding extra time isnt going to be doing you any favours.

peter_the_piper

Type1 plan

As far as I know she has been giving them the details that are asked for. All written correspondence comes here and I photo it and send it to her to deal with. I believe sheanswers them by email etc.

sheramber

this is the list of repayments due when living overseas
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/overseas-earnings-thresholds-for-plan-1-student-loans/overseas-earnings-thresholds-for-plan-1-student-loans-2020-21

peter_the_piper

Thanks for the link. This is the amount she had been paying but suddenly they upped it to £250. I was querying whether anyone had an idea why or even if they can up it this way. It seems the simplest thing will be to wait till July when she returns to UK permanently.

A breakdown of her payments to them would be useful but they don't seem able to do this.