§ Mr. EdwardsTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what facility exists to pay off the outstanding balance on a student loan. [19811]
§ Margaret HodgeBorrowers can pay off the outstanding balance on their student loans direct to the Student Loans Company at any time. Borrowers who wish to do so are advised to contact the SLC to arrange the most appropriate way to make the payments.
§ Mr. EdwardsTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what plans she has to require the Student Loans Company to issue regular statements to individuals about the outstanding balance, repayments made and the projected term of the loan. [19813]
§ Margaret HodgeBorrowers under the pre-1998 scheme (mortgage style loans) receive annual statements from the Student Loans Company. They sign a loan agreement which sets out the repayment terms—five years for less than five loans and seven years for five or more loans.
For borrowers under the new income-contingent loans scheme, repayment is collected by their employers through deductions from their earnings, in line with tax and national insurance contributions. These borrowers will get a statement from the SLC after the end of the tax year, once the SLC has received details of their repayments from the Inland Revenue.
Self-employed borrowers would receive their statements after the end of the tax year as long as they made their self-assessment returns to the Inland Revenue on time.
Loan repayments under the income contingent scheme rise or fall with earnings. They do not, therefore, have a projected repayment term.
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§ Mr. EdwardsTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what plans she has to improve the information available by the Student Loans Company about the balance on an individual's outstanding loan. [19814]
§ Margaret HodgeBorrowers under the pre-1998 scheme (mortgage style loans) can contact the Student Loans Company at any time to obtain information on their outstanding loan.
For borrowers under the new income-contingent loan scheme, repayments are collected by their employers, through deductions from their earnings, in line with tax and national insurance contributions.
These borrowers will get a statement from the SLC after the end of the tax year. This will happen after the SLC has received details of their repayments from the Inland Revenue.
Self-employed borrowers would receive their statements after the end of the tax year as long as they make their self-assessment returns to the Inland Revenue on time.
My officials are currently working with the SLC to find better ways of providing account updates for income contingent loan borrowers, in particular to ensure that repayments are stopped as soon as the loan is repaid.
§ Mr. HendryTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many student loans have been issued; and what is the total value of student loans issued, broken down by each LEA area. [20193]
§ Margaret HodgeIn academic year 2000–01, there were 648,500 loans to the value of £1,920.8 million issued to students normally domiciled in England and Wales. Information broken down by LEA area is not held centrally, but we are asking the Student Loans Company to write to the hon. Gentleman further on this.