Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he (a) has made an assessment of the equity of student loan repayments being taken from probationary police officers in London whose allowance takes them over the threshold for repayment and (b) plans to change his policy on that issue.

Repayments are made based on a borrower’s monthly or weekly income, not the interest rate, amount borrowed or borrower’s occupation. Repayments are calculated as a fixed percentage of earnings, with only the amount of earnings above the relevant repayment threshold being considered – and if the borrower’s income drops, so do repayments made. No repayments are made on earnings below the repayment thresholds. Any outstanding debt is written off at the end of the loan term with no detriment to the borrower.

If, at the end of the year, the borrower’s total income is below the relevant annual threshold, they may reclaim any repayments from the Student Loans Company made during that year.

There are no plans to amend the regulations to apply different repayment terms to borrowers in different occupations.