Student Loan Repayment Error?

[elise2000]

Hi

Wife's student loan was paid off in full back in May 2023. Before this payments were made yearly through her self assessment tax return.

SLC have been in touch today to say that the £89 taken via HMRC in 21-22 has been taken back by HMRC and therefore is still owed, with interest, and is now £103.27.

The whole thing seems very bizarre. Mainly, why should we pay interest for their mistake?

Thoughts welcome!

[deggles]

Cheeky f*ckers. How easy is it to speak to them and ask them to waive the interest? If you don't get any joy, I'd go straight to their formal complaints process and then FOS. I know it's a fairly trivial amount but that would piss me right off

Edit: I don't think they'd want it to go anywhere near FOS as their costs would far exceed the amount "owed"

[elise2000]

deggles said:

Cheeky f*ckers. How easy is it to speak to them and ask them to waive the interest? If you don't get any joy, I'd go straight to their formal complaints process and then FOS. I know it's a fairly trivial amount but that would piss me right off

Edit: I don't think they'd want it to go anywhere near FOS as their costs would far exceed the amount "owed"

Agreed completely. It’s the principle. Wasn’t our mistake. Was either hmrc or slc. So why should we pay the interest?!

Spoke to slc on the phone. Not easy as they want memorable words etc, all of which have been deleted from my password list as the loan was closed 3 years ago! And the address on file was out of date as of last November when we moved. So that’s 30 mins of my life I won’t get back. Basically she says it’s an hmrc issue. I have the tax return here which shows the £89 repayment. Don’t understand it at all. Slc say they will send a letter (they won’t email as say it’s not secure. As if 2nd class post is…).

I’ve spoken to my accountant who said to forward the letter when I receive it.

I know this is going to waste far too much of my time, but I’d rather that than give these stingy bas*ards any more money.

I’d have thought that they’d have a not-worth-the-bother-threshold for small amounts like this. Can’t believe the figures stack up chasing it.

[Simpo Two]

elise2000 said:

Spoke to slc on the phone.

Phone HMRC. My problem was pension-related not student loans but when I managed to get through the person on the other end was very switched on, saw exactly what had gone wrong and sorted it out in a couple of minutes.