Loan repayment rates

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Dear Student Loans Company Limited,

I'd like to know statistical information on the number of student loans that are never re-payed and partially re-payed in the last 2 years. As well as how much money is given out to students and never returned to the government. How much of a loss is there for the government by the student finance system.

Yours faithfully,
Luke Seager

FOI Publication Scheme, Student Loans Company Limited

Dear Mr Seager

Thank you for your email dated 21/02/2012 requesting information under the
Freedom of Information Act 2000. Your request has been logged under
reference 27-12. Please quote this reference in future communications.

A full response will be issued in due course.

Yours sincerely

Louise Chapman
Freedom of Information Officer
Student Loans Company
100 Bothwell Street
Glasgow
G2 7JD
Tel: 0141 243 3062

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FOI Publication Scheme, Student Loans Company Limited

Dear Mr Seager

I refer to your e-mail dated 21/02/2012 requesting the following
information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (“FOIA”):

“I'd like to know statistical information on the number of student loans
that are never re-payed (sic) and partially re-payed (sic) in the last 2
years. As well as how much money is given out to students and never
returned to the government. How much of a loss is there for the government
by the student finance system.”

Response

I can confirm that we do not hold information on the number of student
loans that are never repaid or partially repaid in the last two years.
This is due to the fact that a student loan is repaid over the life-time of
the loan if a customer is earning above the relevant repayment threshold,
before the loan is either fully repaid or cancelled/written-off under the
relevant provisions. It would therefore be impossible to confirm how many
student loans were never repaid or partially repaid in a two year period.

We can, however, confirm the number of student loans that have been
cancelled or written off in the last two financial years. This information
can be found in our statistical publications known as Statistical First
Releases issued in June 2011 at the following internet link:

http://www.slc.co.uk/statistics/national...

Please refer to Table 2(i) of each individual publication for details of
the number of customers whose accounts have been cancelled or written off
in the last two financial years.

In terms of repayment of student loans, repayment status can change
throughout a financial year and the repayment status in our statistical
publications is determined at the end of a financial year. You may find
the statistics in Table 2(ii) for Mortgage Style (pre-1998) student loans
of assistance. For Income Contingent Repayment (post-1998) student loans,
you may find the statistical publication on Income Contingent Repayment
loan repayments useful:

http://www.slc.co.uk/statistics/official...

The amount lent during the last 2 financial years is considered exempt from
disclosure under section 21 of the FOIA as it is reasonably accessible to
you by other means. Please refer to Table 1 of the Statistical First
Releases published in June 2011, at the first link above.

SLC does not hold information on how much of this money is never returned
to the government, on the basis that a student loan is repayable over the
life-time of the loan depending on the income of the customer or whether or
not the customer is eligible to have their student loan cancelled or
written-off. We can, however, confirm how much has been cancelled or
written-off in the last 2 financial years. This information can also be
found in Table 1 of the same publication.

SLC does not hold any information of how much of a loss there is for the
government by the student finance system. I would consider that the UK
Government and the Devolved Administrations would not consider investing in
the student finance system as a “loss”, but as an investment, of which some
money will be repaid. I would recommend that you contact the following for
further information in relation to this part of your request:

· The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills -
[email address]

· The Scottish Government - [email address]

· The Department for Education and Skills, Wales -
[email address]

· The Department for Employment and Learning, Northern Ireland -
[email address]

Internal review procedure

I trust that my answer to you is satisfactory; however, if you are unhappy
with the decisions made by me in relation to your freedom of information
request, you may ask SLC for an internal review.

Any such appeal would be conducted by Chris Andrew, Company Secretary, 100
Bothwell Street, Glasgow, G2 7JD. You may request a review by writing to
Chris Andrew or by emailing the FOI Office
([SLC request email]). SLC will only consider requests for
internal reviews which are made within 3 months of the date of our original
response (except in exceptional circumstances).

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have
the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision.
The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Please note that freedom of information responses may be published on our
corporate website www.slc.co.uk under the Freedom of Information pages.

Yours sincerely

Louise Chapman
Freedom of Information OfficerLouise Chapman
Freedom of Information Officer
Student Loans Company
100 Bothwell Street
Glasgow
G2 7JD
Tel: 0141 243 3062

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