---

Dept for Education and Skills

Answer

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many graduates are not making repayments on their income contingent student loans; and what proportion of the total number of such loans outstanding this represents. [155452] Alan Johnson: [holding answer 27 February 2004]: The information requested is not available centrally. Borrowers enter repayment status in the April following graduation or otherwise leaving their course. There were 1,409,000 borrowers in the United Kingdom with income contingent student loan accounts at the end of the end of the financial year 2002-03 of whom approximately 298,000 had accounts in repayment status. Borrowers can have accounts both in repayment status and not in repayment status if, for example, they have attended a second course of higher education. No repayments are due from borrowers who are not in repayment status, although just under 15,000 borrowers made early repayments voluntarily in 2002-03. No repayments are deducted from income-contingent borrowers in repayment status whose income falls below £10,000 per annum. Repayments of income-contingent loans are, apart from a few exceptions, collected through the tax system. Most repayments are notified to the Student Loans Company more than one year after the end of the tax year, after which time has to be allowed for reconciliation with their records. Therefore the data on the number of borrowers with income-contingent loans where repayments are not being deducted because the borrower's income is below the repayment threshold, or for some other reason, are not yet available.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

418 c658-9W;418 c678-9W; 155452

Session

2003-04

Subjects

Graduates Loans Repayments Students

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk