Last updated: 28/11/07
Statement from the Student Loans Company
We put the accusations to the SLC - here is their response in full:

“We have to appreciate that we have a better knowledge and understanding of the student loans system than almost anyone else can. We also have a much clearer picture of what is happening across the country and a very much better idea of comparative trends between one year and the next. One of the many key responsibilities of the Student Loans Company is to keep comprehensive statistics and data and publish these on behalf of the Office for National Statistics in two annual releases of audited figures.

We were at pains to explain to the Guardian before it published the misleading feature on ‘unpaid loans’ that, this year, we have paid more students on time at the start of term than ever before (well in excess of 900,000). We also made the point that a very small number of unsubstantiated comments in a web-chat should be seen in that context.
If every student who had been paid had joined that web discussion, it would have overloaded the server many times over - but they didn’t.

Every year, there remain a substantial number of people whose student finance is paid long after the start of the first term - despite the fact that the Student Loans Company is in a position to implement payment electronically at a moment’s notice. The reasons for this situation are varied.

To begin with, the deadline for applying for a loan is actually nine months after the start of the academic year and so many people are not paid at the start of the first term because they exercise their right to apply very much later in the year. On top of that, there is always a very significant number of people who effectively apply late (in other words, they aren’t exercising their right to apply later in the year but have left it too late to apply and be paid at the start of the first term). Every year, there are always a significant number of people whose applications contain an error or missing data - such as an incorrect bank account number, a missing National Insurance number or wrong information because of a change of course. This year is not noticably different in this respect than any other year, despite the fact that there were several thousand more applicants than last year or any previous year.

Some of the comments that appeared on the web-chat are difficult to fathom.

There appeared to be an underlying assertion that, for some inexplicable reason, the Student Loans Company sets out to make things difficult for student applicants. We have also seen allegations elsewhere that the SLC wants to overload students with debt. The Student Loans Company is here for one reason and one reason only - to make things as easy and pleasant as possible for people going into higher education. When that happens, we feel we have succeeded and we feel proud - as, for example, when we have succeeded in paying over 900 thousand people in a three-week period.

When it doesn’t, we know we have failed. We don’t like to fail and we certainly don’t want to see our student customers suffer any disadvantage. More importantly, though, we really do try not to be complacent. We are now well into a multi-million pound programme to provide students in England with a much more accessible and user-friendly service which we are confident will produce a range of very visible improvements in the overall service.

You put the specific question to us about the comment being made to you by students and others that ‘because they are being phased out of the system, some local authorities are putting less priority on processing loan applications and this is causing delays.’ The Student Loans Company is firm in its belief and understanding that, across England, local authorities continue to do a highly professional and dedicated job in processing student loans.”

- Ian McLaren Thomson, SLC Press Officer