Student Loan Repayments

triggerthat

triggerthat

triggerthat

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Hi guys,

I finished University last year in June and had my graduation this January. I started my job in December and they have been taking out student payments for the last two months. I've heard that they should only be taking payments after April. Does that apply to me? I've been looking online but with no confirmation about this.

Thanks.
 
Raymond Lin said:
I thought the trigger is when you earn above £15,000. Not a date on the calendar.
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This was my belief as well.
Does a few months really make that much difference tho? Your going to have to pay it sometime, start sooner and you'll get it out of the way sooner (and with less interest).
 
I ask because a few of my friends are not getting charged and have told me the above. Just thought I'd ask here. :-)

And yes, it does make a difference :)
 
OK, fair enough. I assumed that having a 15k job is going to be such a massive difference to your student loan that you wouldnt notice the loan payments coming off. I would be delighted to get even £8K compared to when i have just now :p
saas said:
You start repaying the student loan after you leave your course, get a job and are earning over £15,000 a year (in other words, the repayment is income-contingent).
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Thats for Scottish students.
Maybe your friends are talking about some other charges? I know that my bank will allow me 1 year after i graduate to pay off my overdraft.
 
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touch said:
Maybe your friends are talking about some other charges? I know that my bank will allow me 1 year after i graduate to pay off my overdraft.
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Bit useless if you can't find a job the ways things are going though, isn't it?
 
triggerthat said:
Hi guys,

I finished University last year in June and had my graduation this January. I started my job in December and they have been taking out student payments for the last two months. I've heard that they should only be taking payments after April. Does that apply to me? I've been looking online but with no confirmation about this.

Thanks.
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Read the letter they sent you, they have been taking it too early. It should be the next tax year, i.e. this April. But it surely makes no difference, if you're paying it back you're paying it back right?
 
They a bit of mess in terms of who they take money from. It is calculated by deducting £15,000 from your gross salary and charging 9% on anything left. This is recalculated on a monthly basis, so that bonuses are charged correctly too.

I have had friends who didn't have any money taken from them for years and have only started paying despite always being on more than £15,000pa. It eventually catches up though.

One depressing thought though is that now you're working, for every extra £1,000 you start earning you will get to take home £600 net after PAYE/NI/SL assuming the extra £1,000 is in the basic rate band. Every extra £1,000 you earn in the higher rate band will net you £500 :p
 
Kennysevenfold said:
Student loans are interest free ;)
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For now ;)

If you pay them off while they are 0% - you will have less to pay off when they increase again.

And for those that don't know - "A clause in the Higher Education Act allows the government to set its own interest rate on the loans - anthing from 0% up to 100%" - so you better pray that whoever gets into Downing street in a few months doesn't come up with some hairbrain idea on how to generate some cash easily - They already did it sneakily with Premium Bonds (by changing the prize fund structure) held by 23 million people - and few seemed to realise or care :p
 
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They can take a while to find out you are working. So some can start paying months or even a year or so after someone else. It's not a very efficient department.


http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Educati...udentLoansCoursesStartingFrom1998/DG_10034866
When repayments begin

Your student loan repayments will normally start on 6 April after you graduate, or stop attending your course.

For example:

* if you graduated in June 2006, your repayments will have been due to start on 6 April 2007
* if you withdrew from your course in November 2006 (prior to an original intended graduation date of June 2008), your repayments will have been due to start on 6 April 2007

If the April following your last date of attendance has already passed, your repayments will commence as soon as it can be arranged, and you will only make repayments from this point. Repayments will only begin if you earn over the threshold, and will stop if your earnings fall under the threshold.
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triggerthat said:
Hi guys,

I finished University last year in June and had my graduation this January. I started my job in December and they have been taking out student payments for the last two months. I've heard that they should only be taking payments after April. Does that apply to me? I've been looking online but with no confirmation about this.

Thanks.
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It was my understanding that you would start making repayments in the tax year following the departure from your university course.


I am in the exact same situation as yourself but have not started paying student loans yet.

However I did start repaying in Janurary the graduate loan I received from my company. Perhaps you are confusing this with the student loan as will no doubt have a similar reference?
 
I finished my course back in June and i got a job in August. I haven't paid back anything to SLC, although i did get a letter from them in January saying that i will start paying back in April 2010.
 
Repayments are supposed to start (at the earliest) in April after you graduate, not before that. You then pay 9% of (salary minus £15,000) per year, taken directly out of your payslips. If you're earning £15,000 or less then no payments are ever taken.
 
Gaygle said:
I finished my course back in June and i got a job in August. I haven't paid back anything to SLC, although i did get a letter from them in January saying that i will start paying back in April 2010.
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I had a rather bizarre letter from them in January which said they had been informed I didnt have a job. Given I've not been out of employment since I was 17 I found this quite confusing. I then forgot all about the letter. oops.
 
Gaygle said:
I finished my course back in June and i got a job in August. I haven't paid back anything to SLC, although i did get a letter from them in January saying that i will start paying back in April 2010.
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That is exactly correct and what should happen to everybody, as the new tax year starts then....

They do sometimes mess up, as Fox has highlighted.
 
Interestingly the letter said they'd also fine me £150 if I didnt reply super immediatly to the bizarre and threatening letter.

I guess they add this onto your amount owed, in which case, I couldnt care less :p
 
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