Student loan repayments (UK)?
I know that people are meant to begin re-paying their student loans when they begin to earn £15000, but does anyone know whose responsibility it is to ensure that these payments are made direct from your salary?
I’ve been earning over £15000 for about 5 months now but as yet my student loan deductions haven’t come off my salary yet.
I thought that this was something that happened automatically. Or should I speak to the payroll people at my job and ask them to start making deductions?
If anyone has any info it would be much appreciated. I’m just worried now that any deductions would have to be backdated to the time when I began earning over £15k?
First of all you have nothing to worry about. The SLC are really slack about repayments. Think about it, the longer you take to pay the more money they get. On the other hand, the interest rate is only 2% so it makes more sense for you to pay off credit cards, overdraft, mortgage or even to save in a cash ISA.
I graduated in 2001 and as my first job was for the government, they automatically started taking payments every month.
When I changed jobs the new employer didn’t tell the local tax office to continue taking payments so I stopped making contributions. Apparently on your P45 there is a little box you should tick saying “continue making student loan contributions”. Anyway, this gave me a nice break from payments while I bought a house and needed all the money I could. Once I had a bit more spare cash, I told my payroll I want to make loan contributions again and they had to contact the local tax office for a form. I didn’t have to do anything. Payments started coming out at 9% of anything over £1250 gross per month. No backdating, even at the end of the financial year. The IR office just collect the money your company send them, then make a lump sum payment to the SLC at the end of the fiscal year.
Now I moved job again (this time abroad) I am meant to self assess my contributions. I hadn’t told them I was abroad even though I’d been here a year and I’ve not told them how much I earn. When I phoned them up the other day to make a voluntary contribution they didn’t ask for any details or ask any questions. If I want to make any contributions I just do an internet transfer but I’ve never heard a peep out of SLC unless I contact them first.
I don’t think my brother’s ever made any contributions ever and he’s 30!
