A question about : Student Loan Repayments Error
Hi guys,
I could really do with some help. I am at my wits end and banging my head against a brick wall. I need to know who I can go to legally to help me with this as I have no confidence that I am going to get anywhere through complaining directly to Student Loans Company.
I enclose the complaint letter I sent below to SLC which should give you a good idea of what the issues are:
I write to complain about the shocking level of service I have received over the past 5 years and the fact that you are still taking repayments despite the fact I paid my loan off years ago.
I first complained in 2010 when I noticed that deductions had started to be made for student loans once again, despite the fact that I know I had paid this off in about 2007.
I worked for RK Supply Chain Personnel from 2002 to 2007 and during this time earned more than enough to pay the loan off – I was earning between Ј50k and 90k at the time. I remember calling the loan company 1 year before it was paid off and working out with you how much was left so I categorically know that I did pay it off, and indeed made a few months of over-payments.
In 2010 when working for Manpower, I noticed on my pay check that student loan deductions had started to come out again so I called you and was informed that for some reason, for tax year 2004 – 2005 and 2005 – 2006 there was no records at all from HMRC about deductions.
I looked through my files and sent you through what payslips I had which clearly showed massive deductions for both of these tax years, one of these pay slips is from the end of tax year 2004/05 and shows the accumlative amounts of what I had been paid that year and my tax deductions - i was confident from this that you would therefore be able to work out what student loan contributions I had made.
Not long after I left Manpower and fell ill and didn’t work for a few years so obviously wasn’t paying any student loan deductions and it became something I didn’t worry about as I had my illness to try and recover from.
I have recently started working again and noticed once again these repayments being taken. I called up and was told that the amount I owe has reduced as finally, 7 YEARS after, HMRC have finally submitted info for tax year 2005/6 – so here is evidence that the system doesn’t work as this should be submitted the same / following year and has clearly been lost in the system for 7 years.
I have now been told that the only way you will do anything is if I can provide evidence to show the payments made. I am astounded by this for the following reasons:
1) It is not my responsibility to inform you of what payments I have made – this falls to my employer, HMRC and SLC.
2) The fact that I don’t have every payslip from 10 years ago should not make me accountable for the fact that you don’t have the information and therefore I will have to keep making payments
3) It is clearly your system that is flawed and its fundamentally wrong that I am a victim of that. YOU should do something to improve your system and rectify the error that has clearly been made on my account.
4) All of the evidence that you do have – the payments I made in preceding and subsequent years plus the 3 payslips you do have for tax year 2004/5 all point towards the fact that you are missing information NOT that I haven’t made repayments. It is also abundantly clear that the amounts I have paid show that the missing amounts would more than pay off my loan. Again, this is YOUR fault and I should not be made to pay for this.
TO make matters even worse, the employer I had in 2004/5 is no longer in existence so I cannot look to them for answers either!
My financial situation is vastly different from that of 10 years ago. My illness caused me to not be able to work and as a result I had to go bankrupt in December 2014. Clearly, having loan deductions wrongly taken from my pay currently, is having more of a negative impact on my life when I am doing my best to recover from what was an awful time for me. I now feel like I am in a nightmare because neither you nor HMRC are willing to take any responsibility for your errors and the only person this is having a consequence on is me.
Your system of compulsory payments is flawed and unethical because regardless of the fact that it’s your system and processes that are flawed, it is me who has to continue making payments and you seem to be quite happy with this!
It should not be my responsibility to give you evidence of my payments when the system has never demanded this of me before. Clearly if I had known I should keep payslips from 10 years ago “just in case” the organisations I have trusted with my money really mess up, then I would have!!!
I will be taking this further and seeking legal advice, I have also approached BBC Watchdog who I know have already investigated similar stories to this.
Finally, I am disgusted by the lack of customer care – in that I have contacted you numerous times over the years and 5 years on, I am no further on, and not once have I received correspondence from you on this matter – it has always been me who has had to contact you. You did not even have the courtesy to inform me that you would not be doing anything further on this as HMRC couldn’t provide you with any evidence. If I had not called today, I would have only realised this to be the case when another deduction inevitably comes out of this month’s pay check.
I have been asked to resubmit the evidence I sent to you in 2010 (which for some reason only went on to your system in March of 2013 – 3 years later) which I will do this weekend. I trust it will not take yet another 3 years for it to be considered and look forward to hearing from you soon.
Best answers:
- Can anyone point me to anyone who could help?? I have worked out that they must owe me at least Ј3k and still continue to take money from me every month. Is there any way I can stop the payments from happening until this situation is rectified??
- Do you have historic statements from SLC which
a) show payments for the missing tax years?
b) show the loan balance as 0 in 2010 (or at least very near 0)?
Are you writing to the very top (https://www.slc.co.uk/about-us/board.aspx). If this relates to a complaint from 5 years ago, I would be e-mailing Mick Laverty about this! (You can find his address at double you double double you dot ceoemail dot com) - Won't let me post this link
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