Overcharged in student loan repayments

waynej69

My wife is an agency midwife, so her pay varies significantly month to month.

She still gets her student loan repayments taken from her pay, but the fact that she earns a varying amount month to month means that she is having too much deducted.

In the last 3 years we calculated this at nearly £1700 which is significant.

Slc basically say its not their problem nothing they can do.

How do we get this resolved!

Seems very wrong that a company can keep money they are not entitled to, by their own rules.

MSE_ForumTeam5

We've moved this thread to the part of the forum that deals with student finance issues.

This MSE guide may be relevant to your situation:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/students/student-loan-overpayment-refund/

kaMelo

Student loan repayments are calculated per pay period, like national insurance, If she earns a lot one month she will pay an increased student loan repayment, if the following month she earned very little and didn't need to repay any student loan she doesn't get any credit for the previous month. There is no accumulation like what happens with income tax.

As long as her annual income exceeds the income threshold for her type of student loan there is nothing you can do.. Only if her annual income is below the income threshold for her type of student loan can she request a refund for overpayments.

la531983

But will be paid off quicker, so surely thats a positive?

Woodstok2000

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82065225#Comment_82065225

Or alternatively she'll pay a lot more before it is written off, which isn't a good thing.

waynej69

Will pay more before its written off.. do not a good thing.

But whatever the case, how is it that they can hang on yo the money thst they are not actually entitled to?

silvercar

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82065651#Comment_82065651

They are entitled to it. Once your annual income exceeds the threshold, your repayments are calculated on a monthly basis

waynej69

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82066030#Comment_82066030

Please pay attention.

They are entitled to 9% of earnings ove the threshold.

For 3 years they have received significantly more than that to the tune that they now have £1700 on top of the "9% of earnings over the threshold"

So they have money they are not entitled to, but apparently there is no mechanism for them to have it back.

QrizB

They are entitled to 9% of earnings ove the threshold.

Per pay period, not per annum.

So if she's over the threshold one pay period, they're entitled to their 9%. If she's under the threshold the next pay period, there's no 9%.

But there's no end-of-year reconciliation.

So they have money they are not entitled to, but apparently there is no mechanism for them to have it back.

You can't get it back because they're still entitled to it.

Consider for example a Plan 5 loan. Annual threshold £25k. If you were paid £2500 a month for a year, that's £30k a year. Each month you'd be paying 9% on £416.67 which is £37.50 a month, £450 for the year.

However, taking an extreme example if you were paid £30k in one month and an insignificant sum in all the others, you'd be paying 9% on £27916.67 which is £2512.50.

silvercar

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82066727#Comment_82066727

You are only looking at the headline rate of 9% over the threshold. You aren’t looking at the detail of the rule, @QrizB explained it correctly.

waynej69

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82066737#Comment_82066737

Surely its per annum, its all quoted per annum. The threshold is in earnings per annum.

If they want to make it per month then they should do just that and have monthly earnings numbers for the thresholds in all the paperwork