Student Loan not showing salary payments

fkeates

I have post graduate (masters) loan, and earning higher than the threshold.  Without notification (I'd asked for payments to be direct debit when I applied for the loan), £249 started to be deducted from my salary from April 2022.  I checked on .gov student loan account, saw how much i owed and decided to pay it off in full, thereby clearing the balance and a bit more to take account of any interest. 

Since then, £249 has been collected each month from my salary, meaning I've now over paid my loan by over £1500. 

My employer (a very large employer) has confirmed they received the appropriate paperwork from HMRC advising them to take the payment and have since been submitting it each month (along with many hundreds of other student loan payments they process each month) via 'real time payment' (I think that what they called it) - they showed me the paperwork to confirm this and also advised if they didn't submit the money HMRC asked for, it would get flagged up.

I tried contacting HMRC (multiple times and many hours waiting in the queue), once though I was told they receive the payments and pass them on to SLC.  It was therefore a  SLC issue (and cut me off!).

Having spend many times and many, MANY hours in the queue with SLC I get told that no payments have been made into my account and that they've received nothing from HMRC.  I was advised to take it up with my employer and HMRC (they could not speak directly to HMRC as it's an issue between me and them - apparently!).  Each time I query this, I get the same message, with them either unwilling or unable to look into this further.  I have even tried messaging them through Facebook [whoever came up with that system needs sacking!  i had to create a Facebook account just to message them].  Each message takes 48 hours to responed to and eventually they come back and say, "no payments have been received into your account from HMRC.  You need to take it up with your employer and HMRC".

This is really very worrying.

If the payments are being taken from my salary to HMRC and HMRC pass this money on to SLC (info is shared with SLC on a weekly basis), why isn't it showing up on my account and why are SLC denying receiving the money?

My student account on-line is showing the direct overpayments, but not any of the payments taken from my salary.  It is also showing that there is still a balance outstanding on the loan (not sure why as I've paid off the balance in full plus extra).  I am also being charged extortionate amount of interest (6.5%) on an account that has the balance cleared and should be showing an over payment balance.

WHAT CAN I DO to fix this?

1. Employer says, money is requested from HMRC and is paid to them.
2. HMRC say SLC requested them to collect the money from my employer and they pass this on to SLC
3. SLC say they're not receiving any money from HMRC and won't look into it any further.
4. SLC account showing I still owe money on the loan despite the balance being cleared and additional overpayment from salary.
5. Interest at 6.5% is still being charged on the account.
6. SLC refuse to speak directly to HMRC; HMRC refuse to speak directly to SLC.

ANY help would be greatly appreciated!

thanks

silvercar

On the balance of probability, based on previous performance, I would guess that it is SLC that have it wrong. There is now a scheme whereby once your balance is nearly cleared, you are allowed to stop salary deductions and set up a direct debit yourself, so they know their scheme falls over near the loan repayment point. Keep hammering at SLC, I would write to your MP and see if they can contact slc. Maybe writing to slc giving consent to share your date with your MP who will be writing to them, may focus their mind.