Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many offers of postgraduate loans have been withdrawn as a consequence of errors attributed to the Student Loans Company in each of the last five years; and if she will make a statement.

The Government has introduced a new postgraduate master’s degree loan to eligible students for the Academic Year 2016/17. The loan scheme makes £10,000 available to eligible students as a contribution towards the costs of their study and can be used for tuition fees or living costs.

Data provided by the Student Loans Company (SLC) shows that 109 postgraduate students who were offered the new loan have had that offer withdrawn. Regrettably these students were assessed in error as eligible for the loan product, and were then subsequently re-assessed as ineligible.