Call for change to student loans system

Changes are being demanded in the student loans system after nearly £19m in over-payments by scholars was found to have been held by the Government over the last five years.

Just under 60,000 former students have overpaid on their loans since 2015-16 and are owed refunds, averaging more than £300 each, according to Student Loans Company (SLC) data.

The figures, obtained by Research Professional News, show nearly £18.4m of overpayments on student loans has not yet been refunded to graduates' bank accounts.

The SLC said it has introduced a new online repayment service over the past two years to make it easier for former students to managetheirloansandhelpavoid over-repayment.

But Rachel Hewitt, director of policy and advocacy at the Higher Education Policy Institute, said: "It is unethical for the loan recipients to have to take the responsibility for ensuring they are not overpaying. It shows flaws in the system, that there is still such a significant number of graduates overpaying.

"It is essential that this is addressed, to avoid further distrust in the loans system."

A SLC spokesman said: "Over the past two years, SLChasintroduced a new Online RepaymentServicetomakeit easier for customers to manage their student loan and to help avoid over-repayment. These improvements have significantly reduced the amount over-repaid.

A Department for Education (DfE) spokeswoman said: "No one should have to overpayontheirstudentloan and we have taken steps to improve the system to avoid this happening in the future.