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Written evidence submitted by the Student Loans Company (SLC)

 

About SLC

 

The Student Loans Company (SLC) is unique in terms of being a private limited company whose shares are wholly owned by the UK government and the Devolved Administrations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland whilst also being a non-departmental public body where policy is devolved across all four nations. SLC’s mission is to enable people to invest in their futures through further and higher education by providing trusted, transparent, flexible and accessible student finance services.

 

SLC’s role and remit in higher education

 

We determine applicants’ eligibility and entitlement for student finance and make payments of loans and grants based on each of the relevant administrations’ policies. This covers both further and higher education for undergraduate and postgraduate study.

In England and Wales, SLC manages the entire end-to-end apply, assess, pay and repay customer journeys. For Scotland and Northern Ireland, SLC provides the payment and repayment elements of the service. The overall loan book balance across all domiciles, in billions, as of 31 March 2025 is split as follows:

The majority of payments relate to tuition fee loans paid to educational institutions on behalf of students, and maintenance loans paid directly to students. In total circa £23bn is paid out to institutions and students in terms of tuition fee and maintenance loans each year.

SLC administer a number of additional support ‘products’ in the form of grants for students with additional needs, such as the childcare grant and the Disabled Students’ Allowance.

Our relationship with students and our ability to assess household income mean we are also able to offer support to universities and colleges with the administration of bursary and scholarship schemes.

All Tuition Fee Loans, Maintenance Loans and Grants are advanced by the Student Loans Company, on behalf of the Secretary of State, or Minister’s responsible in the Devolved Administration. In accepting the loan or grant, the borrower in effect enters into an agreement with Government to comply with the terms of the loan.

We currently serve a total customer base of c9.7 million customers, managing a loan book of £294.1 billion as at 31 March 2025.

When a customer/student becomes eligible for repayment we work in partnership with HMRC to collect loan repayments.  The majority of repayments are collected by HMRC via PAYE and self-assessment tax systems. Under the relevant regulations, borrowers domiciled outside of the UK, and so not within the scope of the UK tax system, are required, as per regulations, to make separate repayment directly to SLC.

 

Importantly, the amount repaid each month by a customer depends on their income, not how much they have borrowed or owe. This is one of the features which makes student loans very different from other typical loans.

 

An undergraduate customer repays 9% of their income above the relevant repayment threshold depending on their plan type, with post graduate customers repaying an additional 6% of their income above the relevant repayment threshold. Borrowers with both a postgraduate student loan and an undergraduate loan (excluding Scottish customers) repay their loans concurrently. Overseas repayers are required to repay at an ‘equivalent’ rate determined by the Department for Education based upon cost of living in the country they reside and as determined by the World Bank.

 

Outside SLC’s remit

The SLC does not set policy in relation to student finance provision. The criteria and rules that determine an applicant’s eligibility for student finance, the amount of any loan or grant they may be entitled to, the interest rates and terms on repayments are all set by the relevant government bodies.  SLC’s clear role is to administer the service, as directed, in line with those policy decisions.

Submission to this call for evidence

 

We have considered the Call for Evidence and submit the following responses to questions 7 and 8 to aid the Committee’s understanding.

 

7) Does the process around student loans provide enough information, in a clear and fair form, given that this may be the first credit contract for many people? 

 

What we tell customers during the application process

 

Students in England make their initial application for student support via the Student Finance England online portal. Information and guidance, including about repayments, is created and owned by SLC in line with the relevant policy.

 

SLC adhere to all Government Digital Service (GDS) principles and service standards when updating information and guidance and utilise User Centred Design to ensure that the material produced are relevant and meaningful and provide customers with what they need.

 

In line with Government best practice, we routinely test the content and effectiveness of our information and guidance using a range of methods including direct User Experience (UX) research, on the spot pulse surveys, weekly contact surveys, monthly satisfaction surveys, social media sentiments, colleague feedback and customer complaints. We also have a Student Finance Customer Panel who provide feedback and insight to SLC.

 

The Student Finance England page contains information about what students can expect in terms of their student finance journey including that SLC will manage repayment.

Please see Appendix 1 which includes screen shots of what customers see during the application process.

 

In study and post-study communications

 

Our ‘Repaying your student loan’ page on Gov.uk includes detailed information and guidance about repayments. It is aimed specifically at those entering or in repayment and is hosted by the Government Digital Service (GDS). This means that repayment information is published centrally for all domiciles (England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland), in an accessible, user-friendly way.

 

We work with GDS to supplement this and provide targeted customer groups with more specific information at key points on their journey. We do this by publishing and managing our own webpages. Examples of targeted campaigns include:

 

We update the GOV.uk webpage with information that reflects the respective government policy, aligned to GDS standards, on current and historic interest rates, and repayment thresholds and highlight when these changes come into effect. This page can be found by clicking here. We also host repayment information on:

•          Student Finance England Practitioners webpage - a dedicated website for Higher Education Practitioners to support them with the provision of consistent information and guidance to students.

•          UCAS website - UCAS is the UK’s central organisation that manages applications to universities and colleges and hosts important information regarding all aspects of higher education, including student finance.

•          The Student Room - the UK’s largest community for school, college and university students. This is a website which is heavily utilised by prospective, current and past students to ask advice and find answers.

 

In addition, SLC’s Entering Repayment communications campaign targets customers with direct e-mail communication and social media activity. This campaign contains three phases targeting customers as they move from Graduation to Repayment. This includes:

 

 

Background information – SLC role in repayments

 

What customers are required to pay

 

There are five different loan plan types which have been set by the relevant Government administrations and which we manage on their behalf:

 

Each plan type has differing repayment terms; these may relate to the interest rate, the income threshold above which repayments become due, the repayment percentage rate and, or the term of the loan before it is written off.

 

If a customer isn’t in employment or if their income is below the relevant plan threshold, they won’t make any repayments. This is another feature of student funding which makes it very different from typical loans in the private sector.

 

When customers are required to repay

Customers become due to repay their loans with effect from the April after they graduate or leave their course.  As already noted, earning must however, be above the relevant threshold before any payments are taken via the PAYE system. Where loans are related to postgraduate doctoral study, the customer will enter repayment in the April four years after the course started, even if they are still in study. 

 

All loans issued by SLC on behalf of the Department for Education (DfE) are subject to ‘terms and conditions’, as set out in relevant regulations; these detail the terms and conditions associated with student loans, including repayment thresholds, interest rates and income-contingent repayment obligations.

 

SLC publish the Guide to Student Loan Terms and Conditions, which is based on the relevant government policy regulations and which is updated each year to reflect any policy changes. 

 

Customer communications and information

 

Key channels and campaigns

 

We share information about repayments with prospective, new and current students as well as with parents and those supporting our customers’ applications, and we also work with third parties and partners to provide information to higher education student advisers.

 

Our information, guidance and campaigns are communicated via several channels including direct communications to customers, campaign pages and email bulletins to over 8,000 stakeholder contacts.

 

We create detailed campaigns and information plans for each academic year. Typically, this will be broken down into ‘micro-campaigns’ targeting key stages of the prospective student journey, including:

 

 

We produce films and accessible guides, which include information specifically relating to repayment terms and conditions and the accrual of interest, and publish these on social media channels that are used by our target audience. These bite sized films are targeted at customers before they apply for student finance, and at those in-study. 

 

Terms and conditions

 

We are committed to providing clear information and guidance to prospective students at all stages of their customer journey, which is informed by extensive customer engagement and research.

 

The following steps are currently in place:

 

Student Finance Customer Panel

 

We facilitate a Student Finance Customer Panel to help us better understand the experience of customers and to complement our existing user research and testing work. The panel is comprised of prospective students, current students and repayers and meets with our UX team on a quarterly basis.

 

The topic of repayments has featured at a number of the panel sessions and members have been asked for their views on a range of subjects. We also run repayment specific 1-2-1 sessions with members and have held one repayment - specific session in each of the last two years.

 

We carry out customer research into our information and communications materials and use this feedback to inform improvements. In 2025, for example, we engaged over 500 repaying customers via user zoom sessions to get their views and feedback on repayment communications. We used the feedback and insights to make changes to our Gov.UK, letters and email content.

 

8) Should loans from the Student Loan Company be compliant with FCA rules and principles and the Consumer Duty? 

 

As per The Financial Services and Markets Act 2000- (Exemption)(Amendment)Order 2015, The Student Loans Company Limited was made exempt from the requirement to comply with FCA rules by the relevant government at the time. In line with our role, SLC were not involved in this decision.

 

We understand that navigating the student finance system can be complex for customers, and we continue to work towards improving the overall service for everyone.  Recognising that some customers’ have particular needs, SLC’s customer charter, sets out our commitment to students who need additional support, including one-to-one guidance when needed and providing information in alternative formats.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Appendix 1 Customer Journey – What customers see during the application process

 

 

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