Student loan - please help

kirstabelle

Hi - I am trying hard to finally stick to a budget and living within my means, but my period of deferment is due to end in June and then I am going to be in serious trouble. I have never earned close to the the threshold until this year when I will be above it by about £100 per month.
When all my dates are paid and monthly outgoings there simply isn't enough left to pay £150 odd for students loans.
Is there anything.....................I can do?

Please help!!!:(

melancholly

i'd advise you to head over to the debt free wannabe (DFW) board and post an SOA (statement of affairs). there are links at the top of the board to show you how to do it. the people over there are frighteningly good at going through a monthly budget and finding ways for people to save money!

the good thing is that you have time in hand to get on top of this before June!

Oldernotwiser

Not very helpful,I'm afraid, but as you're with Honours Student Loans, don't get behind with payments or they'll hammer you with charges and come after you really heavily. These are not nice people!

I see you've already had good advice over on the DFW board and you seem to have quite a bit of room to cut back on your budget so it seems to be belt tightening time! Good luck, it can be done and at least you're tackling things whilst being on a good income and before your debts get out of hand.

roxalana

kirstabelle - I'm confused!

You say you are now over the threshold by about £100 per month and that you can't afford £150 to pay for student loans.

Are you saying that your salary is over the £15k repayment threshold by £100 per month and that your repayments are going to be £150 per month?

I think I must have misunderstood something but in case I haven't I think my repayments based on approx £12k loan when I was earning about £16k pa were about £9 per month.

Does this help or have I got the wrong end of the stick?

Lavendyr

Different schemes, Roxalana - it's only student loans taken after 1998 that run under the scheme you're talking about. Loans taken before that have to be paid off in a different way so repayments are higher, typically.

RoyalSwank

My friend is in a similar situation (personally I'm on the new style repayment).
She says you can defer by sending in a company headed letter declaring that you earn below the threshold. She says her boss will sign it for her.

This seems fraudulent to me. She does have some concerns that the Student Loans Co might contact her HR department to investigate, but feels this is very unlikely (and I have to agree).

Does anyone know what the chances of having a deferment investigated are?
I'm not certainly condoning this and could warn her if anyone knew anything about this or had any details regarding the SLC's policy on this.

Let me know if this query is best directed elsewhere on the forum (I'm usually over on the gambling board making £££ )

roxalana

As lavendyr says, I'm not familiar with pre 1998 loans - is that what yours is Kirstabelle?

It just seems a little odd that earning £100 above the threshold would result in £150 payments - does any one know if that is the case - is it based on percentage of income or a fixed figure?

Royalswank - I don't know much about deferment but it definitely sounds like fraud to me & regardless of the likelihood of being found out I would never recommend it due to the illegal nature of it and the potential penalties if caught! Ringing the SLC for advice would I think be the best thing for your friend to do regarding their situation.

pinkshoes

kirstabelle wrote: »

Hi - I am trying hard to finally stick to a budget and living within my means, but my period of deferment is due to end in June and then I am going to be in serious trouble. I have never earned close to the the threshold until this year when I will be above it by about £100 per month.
When all my dates are paid and monthly outgoings there simply isn't enough left to pay £150 odd for students loans.
Is there anything.....................I can do?

Please help!!!:(

You do realise they take 9% of anything you earn OVER £15k pa, not 9% of your entire salary?

i.e. if you earn £16k, you pay 9% on £1000, so £7.50 a month.

ashli_2

Kirstabelle is not mistaken. On the old system the threshold is much higher, around £2100 pm gross I believe, but the minute you cross it, you are liable for repayments of approx £150 a month. It's a fixed figure and is not income assessed.

Oldernotwiser

pinkshoes wrote: »

You do realise they take 9% of anything you earn OVER £15k pa, not 9% of your entire salary?

i.e. if you earn £16k, you pay 9% on £1000, so £7.50 a month.

Sorry, you're still talking about the new style loans, the older "mortgage" are completely different.

Oldernotwiser

Kirstabelle, is your employer involved in the "salary sacrifice" scheme at all. (If you haven't heard of this you can find info on this site by searching.) Would there be any mileage in investigating whether being involved in this would pull your gross income down below the threshold?

(I was in the same situation to you a couple of years ago; I went down to being a 0.9 post which kept me below the threshold. I lost a little less salary than I would have paid out in loan repayments and I only worked 4 1/2 days a week. It's better to be crafty than dishonest!)