Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the cost of updating IT systems to reflect adjustments to the rate of student loan repayments.

The department is responsible for setting the current interest rates for student loans in the UK. These rates are updated annually each September and are primarily linked to inflation, using the Retail Price Index (RPI) from the previous March.

The Student Loans Company (SLC) is a wholly owned government company which delivers student finance services to students on behalf of the four UK governments. In line with government policy, the SLC manages interest rate adjustments for all existing repayment plan types as part of the business processes at SLC. The estimated cost associated with these changes is approximately £50,000 per annum though it is difficult to separate these adjustments from other business processes. SLC makes changes across multiple external and internal sites to ensure consistent communication is provided with customers, which includes the system updates necessary to make accurate and up-to-date interest calculations.