Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, for what reason students with a Student Loan living in countries with higher tax rates are subject to a lower repayment threshold than students living in the UK.

The repayment of student loans is governed by the Education (Student Loans) (Repayment) Regulations 2009 (as amended). All borrowers, including those resident in the UK and overseas, are liable to make student loan repayments calculated on the basis of pre-tax income.

Overseas repayment thresholds are calculated using World Bank cost of living data (which is used to compare differences between the cost of living in the UK and other countries), not the tax rates of countries of residence. This means that if a borrower is resident in a country calculated as having a lower cost of living than the UK, the repayment threshold applied to their loan will be lower than would be the case if they were residing in the UK.