indiebird

Don't know of anyone else has been in this situation, but I have a student loan which is getting on for 10years old now and before moving out here, I changed my address to my mums address for them and thought no more of it. I have never earned enough in those 10years, cos of being a stay at home mum etc. to pay back any of it but yesterday my mum phoned me because of a letter that had arrived from them. She opened it and read it over the phone and the gist is that the inland revenue had informed them that I don't need to pay tax in the UK anymore and they now want me to prove that I don't have any earnings. I need to phone them today as they are threatening allsorts like an £150 fine for starters of i don't reply within 28days of the date of the letter and the whole loan amount. Anyone else had a similar thing or going to look into theirs now??

selinuntina

My hubby had a student loan when he was at college in UK. He got lots of letters sent to my mums and decided to deal with it the Siclian way: just ignore everything and hope it'll go away. In fairness though he wasn't earning enough to pay it back but that would have been difficult to prove as he was never employed "in regola". When we came back to UK they have started taking it out of his wages, its trebled in interest though !
A friend of mine just sent a letter explaining her situation and they accepted that.
HTH

37100

Can't help you here indi except to say "never ignore a taxman" wharever nationality. Phone then and offer a copy of your i.d. card as that has your occupation on it.

indiebird

Thanks for that.... i am still trying to get hold of them... how I hate phoning people!! I don't want to ignore them as we still have uk bank accounts and stuff and I don't want to end up paying even more and more on top. It wasn't for loads and i wish we'd just had the cash to pay them off. I really hate hassle. I will let you know how I get on when i finally speak to someone...

I never have ignored the tax man. I had to do my own accounts as I worked for myself in the UK but as a childminder I never earned enough to pay back any of the loan after expenses and stuff. I had a letter from the inland rev earlier in the year saying that they had decided I didn't need to file a tax return anymore as I was outside the UK. I suppose I just assumed that the student loans company would just hang around, adding interest until I was a UK tax payer again.

Ozzidoc

Don't stress about this. I've just been through the same thing. You are supposed to give the student loans people an annual update once you have a repayment holiday or whatever they call it. (This may be new?)

They'll ask you to fax or post copies of relevent documents or statements.

I needed to provide them with a letter from hubby stating that I'm a stay-at-home housewife (and maybe he also confirmed his annual salary?), and/or a copy of a bank account showing my savings.

duffer

That's right. If your earnings are less than the agreed figure, you can defer the repayments for 12 months. If you do not complete the deferrment form you are breaking the terms of your contract. Why didn't you just give your current address?
I do know that recently the SLC transferred the management of the repayments, deferrments to another company - how this will affect you I don't know. Whether they are flexible, have good customer service, etc I dunno...
Anyway, the SLC sets the interest rate for 12 months on the loans taking an average, so the good news is that currently, for 12 months, there is a negative interest rate! You'll have less to pay back next year compared to this year without making a single payment!

indiebird

Hmmmm well I've never earned enough to pay them back which is why I never have in 10years!! I suppose if you're resident in the UK they get their info from the Inland Revenue as I have never been asked anything before and to be honest, this is why I changed the address to my mums address, cos I hear from them so infrequently that I thought I might forget to change it back when we moved home!! Because my partner is on secondment here, for some things we fall into a bit of a no-mans land. He still gets paid by a british firm into a UK bank account who need a UK address. Therefore we've kept a lot of things at our parent's addresses to try and help simplify.

Anyway, just phoned them and the girl on the phone directed me to this webby here where you can also download the Overseas Income Assessment Form. So guess what I will be doing later!! She told me that I was obliged to inform them but didn't seem to think it was anything unusual. I thought I'd post it here just for other's info too, cos I am sure I'm not the only person who this may affect.

duffer

Most people I know took the fixed term type loan and not the income based loans. There are different procedures and interest rates for both.

Ozzidoc

The OP is referring to student loans by the student loan company

duffer

Yes, so am i. It all depends if you took the loan b4 or after 1998.

Ozzidoc

O. ok

indiebird

what if it was during 1998 like mine was!!??

.Ariel.

I graduated in 2001 - 3yr course. I had the new style loan. During my time in Italy I filled a form in each financial yr stating what I earned. You have to declare what you earn and send in payslips if you're working. I didn't pay anything for a few yrs - then starting paying small amounts (as pay went up)- dear parents sent a cheque each month There's a form to fill in if you're overseas and one for UK.

duffer

You'd have a fixed rate loan if the course began before SEPTEMBER 1998
It's only these type of loans that currently have a negative interest rate of -0.4%

Ozzidoc

Drats! (My course was 5 years, started in 2003)