Students: Loans
(asked on 8th November 2024) - View Source
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 6 November 2024 to Question 11711 on Students: Loans, for what reason there was an increase in the amount of debt written off between 2022-23 and 2023-24.
The table below shows the amount that has been cancelled or written off in the 2022/23 and 2023/24 financial years, broken down by reason.
Reason | Amount cancelled or written off during the financial year (£m) | |
| 2022/23 | 2023/24 |
Because of death | 35.5 | 73.8 |
Because of age | 20.1 | 24.0 |
Because of disability | 2.9 | 2.8 |
Because of bankruptcy | - | - |
On completion of Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA) | - | - |
Trivial balances | - | - |
Losses through fraud (including phishing) | 0.2 | 0.4 |
Other | - | - |
Total | 58.6 | 101.1 |
In the 2023/24 financial year, the department approved the Student Loans Company (SLC) to close or write off accounts confirmed as deceased by HMRC. Previously, when notifications were received from HMRC, SLC would be required to obtain the death certificate copy which would result in delays in closing the account formally (the account would sit at 'Deceased Notified'). The SLC are working through a backlog of cases, hence increased numbers of such write-offs in the 2023/24 financial year.
Write-offs do not include trivial balance write-offs. Trivial balance write-offs occur if there is a positive or negative balance on an account of £25 or less and no contact can be established with the borrower (customers can request for this to be reversed). In the context of these figures, these borrowers are considered fully repaid and are therefore not included. Cancellations involve the clearance of the remaining debt in line with the terms of the loan, for example, when reaching a specific age or becoming permanently disabled. Write-offs for bankruptcy, Individual Voluntary Arrangement or trust deed are no longer allowed against student loans balances. Any figures arise from retrospective clear up exercises.
These figures have been taken from SLC’s student loans in England publication which is updated in June each year. The publication, Student loans in England: 2023 to 2024 can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/student-loans-in-england-2023-to-2024.
The figures were published in ‘Table 1A’ here: https://view.officeapps.live.com/op/view.aspx?src=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.publishing.service.gov.uk%2Fmedia%2F6672d0e2f92bc4be25da7e13%2Fslcsp012024.xlsx&wdOrigin=BROWSELINK.