Plan 1 / 2005–06 transition — does a later course inherit the age-65 write-off?

LoanandBehold

I’m trying to understand a historical student-loan situation.

I took out student finance for a HND college course starting  2005 and withdrew in Feb 2006. I then started a different BA course from year 1 at a university in September 2006 and received student finance for that course. This was at the higher £3000 tuition fees as that’s the year the fee system changed .

SLC currently has my cancellation date for the full amount of both combined recorded as my 65th birthday because my “first loan” was in 2005.

What I’m particularly interested in is whether anyone else has been in a similar position — for example, someone who had a pre-September-2006 loan and then started a separate course on or after September 2006.

Does anyone know whether the later course is automatically subject to the age-65 cancellation rule, or whether it can have the post-2006/25-year treatment?

 I’d appreciate people’s actual experiences            and any official guidance/regulations they’ve found. I’m not necessarily saying SLC are wrong at this stage — I’m trying to understand the rules and why my later course has been treated this way.

flexyfox

This is an interesting situation. I’d also be interested to know whether a separate course started in September 2006 is treated under the newer rules, even if there was an earlier loan from 2005. Hopefully someone with a similar experience or knowledge of the regulations can clarify.

silvercar

The rules are that separate courses have separate loans, even if both are the same plan number. So a course started after 1 September 2006 would be written off 25 years after it went into repayment. Whereas an earlier loan would be written off when you hit 65.

This link below tells you when loans are written off:

https://www.gov.uk/repaying-your-student-loan/when-your-student-loan-gets-written-off-or-cancelled

and this one below tells you that different loans for different courses are considered separately.

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/icr_student_loan_cancellation_re_2#incoming-569571

LoanandBehold

thank you @silvercar that linked information is really interesting and I will have a proper read through. I’ve submitted a request from records from SLC so I can see for myself how they have categorised my loans and what cancellation date has been applied to each loan.
I was told via phone that the cancellation date is my 65th birthday as my first loan was 2005 and that there is not 2 seperate classifications for plan 1 . Now that was verbally so I’ve asked for this in writing and for their reasoning and I will go from there as it doesn’t sound right to me . I want to gain all the facts I can Incase they do come back with an unsatisfactory answer . I’m interested for my own case but it’s also got me thinking about if there is anyone else caught up in this situation that may not realise or not have argued it . The legislation is old and complex but I certainly want to try and make sure I can understand as much as possible to get the fair outcome .