Student Loans chasing me

[Samjoshua]

I've just received a letter from student Loans Company (UK) stating I owe money, which they haven't provided details of, to my Melbourne address.

This is odd as I left Uni 17 years ago in Manchester and haven't heard from them since. I moved to Melbourne 10 years ago. How the hell did they get my Aussie address, and is the debt even viable now after all this time? 

I just want to know what my first move should be. Are they just desperate for money, or is this debt viable? Should I call them or ignore them? 

Any help would be appreciated, I just want to know what to do first thanks.

[ali]

Do you owe the money?  I think perhaps you may need the the advice of a lawyer than than the members of a migration forum

 

[Samjoshua]

Possibly. And of course the obvious answer is to just repay it if so. But 17 years is a long time.

[Peach]

11 minutes ago, Samjoshua said:

Possibly. And of course the obvious answer is to just repay it if so. But 17 years is a long time.

Presumably you've kept in contact for the past 17 years, making sure they've always had an up to date address?

Just to add it was probably the ATO that gave them your address..

Edited July 5, 2020 by Peach

[Amber Snowball]

I think UK uni debt is payable for 30 years after incurring it. Then it is written off.
Aussie uni debt follows you until death and that was up for discussion as to whether they would start to claim on your estate at one time if I remember correctly. 

[Tulip1]

Yes it’s payable. They have excellent ways of finding people. You need to get in contact and set up a payment plan. It’s a shame you didn’t deal with it sooner as interest will have been added onto it over the years. 

[Ausvisitor]

Student loans in the UK are "viable" for 30 years from the date you graduate. 

It is a requirement of the loan (that you agreed to when you took it out, to inform the SLC of any address changes between taking out the loan and it being written off after 30 years)

Interestingly if they can prove you deliberately did not notify them of an address change they can apply to have the years in which they could not contact you added to the end of the 30 years - so you are probably going to be paying this for many more years than you needed to

You should also be aware that the SLC and Australian Tax Office have a bilateral agreement to allow "garnishment" of Aussie earnings at source to repay SLC loans (this was agreed so that Aussie loans could be chased in the UK)

 

So one way or another you will end up repaying this, either forcefully through an earnings attachment order ot voluntarily by doing what you should have been doing all along and repaying the money you have currently stolen from the UK taxpayer

[cheese n pickle]

Agree with the others. You should have updated your address with them when you moved. I managed to defer my payments as I was under the payment threshold, but if I wasn't I would have paid the required amount. My loan has now been written off, due to the length of time I had it. But if you're working and above the payment threshold then you're liable for it.

[Guest]

Hi All, 

I have recently had a email from SLC asking for a update in employment. When I logged on to view my loan I could see that I my loan is now in arrears.

Can anyone provide me with any information on if this can get wiped off? can anyone provide info on how they pay the SLC loan from Australia? is this done monthly with your pay or at EOFYS?

Any advice would be great

Thanks

[JetBlast]

23 minutes ago, Meg7 said:

Hi All, 

I have recently had a email from SLC asking for a update in employment. When I logged on to view my loan I could see that I my loan is now in arrears.

Can anyone provide me with any information on if this can get wiped off? can anyone provide info on how they pay the SLC loan from Australia? is this done monthly with your pay or at EOFYS?

Any advice would be great

Thanks

I can't help you, but it's good to see someone is taking their student debt seriously and making the effort

[Ken]

9 hours ago, Meg7 said:

Hi All, 

I have recently had a email from SLC asking for a update in employment. When I logged on to view my loan I could see that I my loan is now in arrears.

Can anyone provide me with any information on if this can get wiped off? can anyone provide info on how they pay the SLC loan from Australia? is this done monthly with your pay or at EOFYS?

Any advice would be great

Thanks

Getting your loan written off depends upon what loan plan it is and when you took out the loan and upon whether or not you've paid the correct percentage of your earning throughout the loan period (i.e. than no fraud has occurred) but provided the reason you haven't repaid it is because you haven't earned enough to pay it off then it will be written off as follows:-

Plan 1 loans taken out in the academic year 2005/06 or earlier are written off when you are 65

Plan 1 loans taken out in the academic year 2006/07 or later are written off 25 years after the April you were first due to repay

Plan 2 loans are written off 30 years after the April you were first due to repay

Plan 4 loans taken out out in the academic year 2006/07 or earlier are written off when you are 65 or 30 years after the April you were first due to repay - whichever comes first

Plan 4 loans taken out in the academic year 2007/08 or later are written off 30 years after the April your were first due to repay

The SLC have the ability to take a lien on your Australian salary but that would only be for delinquent debtors and the debtor would be responsible for the extra costs involved. The normal instructions for how to make repayments (without incurring extra debt recovery fees) are on their website.

[Tulip1]

14 hours ago, Meg7 said:

Hi All, 

I have recently had a email from SLC asking for a update in employment. When I logged on to view my loan I could see that I my loan is now in arrears.

Can anyone provide me with any information on if this can get wiped off? can anyone provide info on how they pay the SLC loan from Australia? is this done monthly with your pay or at EOFYS?

Any advice would be great

Thanks

Best to email them back explaining your position.  They will then be able to tell you how to pay the debt from Australia.  They’ll know exactly how to sort it out, you won’t be the only one that’s moved overseas. 

[newjez]

6 hours ago, Ken said:

Getting your loan written off depends upon what loan plan it is and when you took out the loan and upon whether or not you've paid the correct percentage of your earning throughout the loan period (i.e. than no fraud has occurred) but provided the reason you haven't repaid it is because you haven't earned enough to pay it off then it will be written off as follows:-

Plan 1 loans taken out in the academic year 2005/06 or earlier are written off when you are 65

Plan 1 loans taken out in the academic year 2006/07 or later are written off 25 years after the April you were first due to repay

Plan 2 loans are written off 30 years after the April you were first due to repay

Plan 4 loans taken out out in the academic year 2006/07 or earlier are written off when you are 65 or 30 years after the April you were first due to repay - whichever comes first

Plan 4 loans taken out in the academic year 2007/08 or later are written off 30 years after the April your were first due to repay

The SLC have the ability to take a lien on your Australian salary but that would only be for delinquent debtors and the debtor would be responsible for the extra costs involved. The normal instructions for how to make repayments (without incurring extra debt recovery fees) are on their website.

Can they actually force you to pay?

[Ken]

On 06/06/2021 at 04:29, newjez said:

Can they actually force you to pay?

Technically it's the courts that can force you to pay, but yes the SLC can get a court order. Options they can pursue (if you don't have the money or assets that can be sold) include making your employer take a deduction from pay each pay period or even requiring your bank to hand over a proportion of any money paid into your bank account. Because the Australian government have the same issue with the student loans of people who go overseas as the British government does, they have a mutual agreement.

[newjez]

4 hours ago, Ken said:

Technically it's the courts that can force you to pay, but yes the SLC can get a court order. Options they can pursue (if you don't have the money or assets that can be sold) include making your employer take a deduction from pay each pay period or even requiring your bank to hand over a proportion of any money paid into your bank account. Because the Australian government have the same issue with the student loans of people who go overseas as the British government does, they have a mutual agreement.

Has this been tested in the courts? I can't think of a precident where a foreign debt has been successfully chased overseas. I'll have to have a Google to see if it's been challenged.

[Parley]

13 hours ago, newjez said:

Has this been tested in the courts? I can't think of a precident where a foreign debt has been successfully chased overseas. I'll have to have a Google to see if it's been challenged.

People who owe Child Support can be prevented from travelling overseas. If someone owes money like this how can they afford overseas holidays etc.

Don't know if it has been done for student loan debts (probably not) but maybe possible.

[Ken]

28 minutes ago, Parley said:

People who owe Child Support can be prevented from travelling overseas. If someone owes money like this how can they afford overseas holidays etc.

Don't know if it has been done for student loan debts (probably not) but maybe possible.

The issue is more one of people who are up to date with their repayments moving overseas and then stopping making any further repayments. It happens with Child Support too. They can't be stopped from going overseas just because there are payments they need to make in the future.

[Parley]

9 minutes ago, Ken said:

The issue is more one of people who are up to date with their repayments moving overseas and then stopping making any further repayments. It happens with Child Support too. They can't be stopped from going overseas just because there are payments they need to make in the future.

True but they could be stopped from further travel if they went back to their original country.

[newjez]

13 hours ago, Parley said:

True but they could be stopped from further travel if they went back to their original country.

You would be pretty foolish not to pay if you were going back.

I guess you could always get your name changed by deed poll as well.

[dandeardan]

Would this debt not be statute barred after 6 years and thus not perusable in a UK or Australian court?

Also are you aware of any UK student loan debt been sold to Australian based debt collectors or otherwise being obtained in Australia through non-court means such as tax returns? I can't find any reports/evidence of this actually occurring, though I could be wrong. The Student Loan Company sends out so many empty threats it is hard to know what are actually undertaken.

[newjez]

4 hours ago, dandeardan said:

Would this debt not be statute barred after 6 years and thus not perusable in a UK or Australian court?

Also are you aware of any UK student loan debt been sold to Australian based debt collectors or otherwise being obtained in Australia through non-court means such as tax returns? I can't find any reports/evidence of this actually occurring, though I could be wrong. The Student Loan Company sends out so many empty threats it is hard to know what are actually undertaken.

I would be very interested to know if there are any test cases, or whether it is a toothless dog.

[MARYROSE02]

On 05/07/2020 at 20:00, Amber Snowball said:

I think UK uni debt is payable for 30 years after incurring it. Then it is written off.
Aussie uni debt follows you until death and that was up for discussion as to whether they would start to claim on your estate at one time if I remember correctly. 

Yes, you are right about student debt - HECS but you only have to repay it if your income goes above whatever the threshold is. I did pay $3,000 a couple of years back when I worked for a whole year but my income is never high enough now. 

I've just enrolled in a new OU unit at Macquarie Uni starting this week. Funny but when I enrolled 2 weeks ago I thought the lockdown would end by the time the unit started and I'd withdraw. Now I'm thinking the 12 week plus break unit will finish before the lockdown does.