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1719819

registered interest
date	21/05/2024
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Students: Loans
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, for what reasons the discount rate used to calculate the Resource Accounting and Budgeting charge on student loans is different to the rate used for general policy appraisal.
tabling member constituency	Harborough
tabling member printed	Neil O'Brien
uin	27501
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/05/2024 answer text <p>The Resource Accounting Budget charge, which is the government subsidy anticipated on student loans issued in any particular financial year, is calculated as the present value of student loan outlay less expected future repayments, in accordance with relevant International Financial Reporting Standards and guidance from HMT’s Government Financial Reporting Manual (FReM).</p><p> </p><p>The FReM requires future repayments of student loans to be discounted at the higher of the intrinsic rate of the financial instrument and the real financial instrument discount rate set by HMT, based on analysis of real yields on UK index linked gilts and are specifically appropriate to central government.</p><p> </p><p>The FReM is kept under constant review. It is updated to reflect developments in relevant standards and best practice.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency East Hampshire answering member printed Damian Hinds question first answered 24/05/2024 10:39:37 answering member 3969 label Biography information for Damian Hinds
tabling member	4679 label Biography information for Neil O'Brien

1718562

registered interest
date	15/05/2024
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Students: Loans
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the reasons behind recent trends in levels of student loan interest rates.
tabling member constituency	Barnsley East
tabling member printed	Stephanie Peacock
uin	26560
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/05/2024 answer text <p>It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.</p> answering member constituency Thornbury and Yate answering member printed Luke Hall grouped question UIN 26561 question first answered 24/05/2024 13:14:46 answering member 4450 label Biography information for Luke Hall
tabling member	4607 label Biography information for Stephanie Peacock

1718563

registered interest
date	15/05/2024
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Students: Loans
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of recent trends in levels of interest rates for student loan repayments on the accessibility of higher education.
tabling member constituency	Barnsley East
tabling member printed	Stephanie Peacock
uin	26561
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/05/2024 answer text <p>It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.</p> answering member constituency Thornbury and Yate answering member printed Luke Hall grouped question UIN 26560 question first answered 24/05/2024 13:14:46 answering member 4450 label Biography information for Luke Hall
tabling member	4607 label Biography information for Stephanie Peacock

1717096

registered interest
date	10/05/2024
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Students: Loans
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an estimate of the value of tuition fee repayments that were written off due to lower graduate salary levels between 2020 and 2023.
tabling member constituency	East Londonderry
tabling member printed	Mr Gregory Campbell
uin	25637
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/05/2024 answer text <p>As education is a devolved issue, the following answer concerns the student finance system in England only. The student finance systems of the devolved administrations differ from that of England.</p><p> </p><p>The department makes regular assessments of the expected write-off amount of student loans issued in each financial year. These forecasts are published on GOV.UK.</p><p> </p><p>The headline statistic Resource Accounting and Budgeting (RAB) charge is the percentage of the loans (both tuition and maintenance) outlaid to students in a given financial year, that the government expects to subsidise, i.e. write-off.</p><p> </p><p>Repayments are calculated based on income, not on the amount borrowed. Borrowers earning less than the repayment threshold repay nothing at all, and loans are cancelled at the end of the loan term with no detriment to the borrower. The Student Loans Company will also cancel a borrower’s liability to repay a loan if the borrower dies or receives an eligible disability-related benefit and because of the disability is permanently unfit for work. It is not possible to disaggregate the pure impact of salary levels of borrowers (graduates and non-graduates) on loan write-offs.</p><p> </p><p>The latest publication of the student loan forecasts for England was published in June 2023, and will be updated at the end of June 2024. The RAB charge for full-time undergraduate higher education (plan 2) loans issued in the 2022/23 financial year was forecast to be 28%.</p><p> </p><p>Student loan repayments volumes are sensitive to the wider economic environment. Earnings of borrowers (both graduates and non-graduates), interest rates, inflation rates, repayment threshold freezes, policy changes and modelling improvements, all influence the RAB charge forecasts. For these reasons RAB forecasts from the past are not directly comparable year-on-year.</p> answering member constituency Thornbury and Yate answering member printed Luke Hall question first answered 15/05/2024 16:36:43 answering member 4450 label Biography information for Luke Hall
tabling member	1409 label Biography information for Mr Gregory Campbell

1716143

registered interest
date	07/05/2024
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Students: Loans
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the average length of time the Student Loans Company takes to refund people who have made an overpayment on their student loan.
tabling member constituency	Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle
tabling member printed	Emma Hardy
uin	24995
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/05/2024 answer text <p>The Student Loans Company (SLC) has a Service Level Agreement of 28 days to make a refund to people who have made an over repayment on their student loan. Based on telephone requests from January to March 2024, the SLC averaged 8 days from the point the request was received to the point the refund was paid to the borrower’s bank account.</p><p> </p><p>Student loans repayments for borrowers resident in the UK are made via HMRC through the UK tax system. Employers deduct repayments each pay period for employees with a student loan when their earnings are above the relevant repayment threshold for that pay period.</p><p> </p><p>Over repayments can occur for a number of reasons, for example the time lag between an employer making a PAYE deduction and HMRC receiving and sending that payment to SLC, which can then confirm that a borrower has paid off their student loan balance. HMRC provides the SLC with student loan repayment information as reported by employers on a weekly basis. For this type of over-repayment, the SLC can automatically make a refund of £5,000 where they are able to verify a borrower’s bank account details.</p><p> </p><p>SLC provide borrowers with the option to switch to repayments via direct debit when they are nearing the end of their loan repayments. This prevents overpayments entirely.</p> answering member constituency Thornbury and Yate answering member printed Luke Hall grouped question UIN 24996 question first answered 15/05/2024 11:47:52 answering member 4450 label Biography information for Luke Hall
tabling member	4645 label Biography information for Emma Hardy

1716144

registered interest
date	07/05/2024
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Students: Loans
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions she has had with HM Revenue and Customs on the timeframe for refunding student loan overpayment.
tabling member constituency	Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle
tabling member printed	Emma Hardy
uin	24996
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/05/2024 answer text <p>The Student Loans Company (SLC) has a Service Level Agreement of 28 days to make a refund to people who have made an over repayment on their student loan. Based on telephone requests from January to March 2024, the SLC averaged 8 days from the point the request was received to the point the refund was paid to the borrower’s bank account.</p><p> </p><p>Student loans repayments for borrowers resident in the UK are made via HMRC through the UK tax system. Employers deduct repayments each pay period for employees with a student loan when their earnings are above the relevant repayment threshold for that pay period.</p><p> </p><p>Over repayments can occur for a number of reasons, for example the time lag between an employer making a PAYE deduction and HMRC receiving and sending that payment to SLC, which can then confirm that a borrower has paid off their student loan balance. HMRC provides the SLC with student loan repayment information as reported by employers on a weekly basis. For this type of over-repayment, the SLC can automatically make a refund of £5,000 where they are able to verify a borrower’s bank account details.</p><p> </p><p>SLC provide borrowers with the option to switch to repayments via direct debit when they are nearing the end of their loan repayments. This prevents overpayments entirely.</p> answering member constituency Thornbury and Yate answering member printed Luke Hall grouped question UIN 24995 question first answered 15/05/2024 11:47:52 answering member 4450 label Biography information for Luke Hall
tabling member	4645 label Biography information for Emma Hardy

1713294

registered interest
date	23/04/2024
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Students: Loans
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of interest rate charges on Government student loan financing, following research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies which showed that higher interest rates will add more than £10 billion per year to the cost of England’s student loan system.
tabling member printed	Lord Mendelsohn
uin	HL4035
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/04/2024 answer text <p>Student loans are valued in the department’s annual accounts in line with the International Financial Reporting Standard 9 and set out in The Government Financial Reporting Manual which is attached.</p><p>Under which where future cash flows are discounted to measure the fair value of a financial asset, this should be done using the higher of the rate intrinsic to the financial instrument or the HMT discount rate. HMT set the discount rate annually based on a 10 year rolling average of gilt yields. For student loans the intrinsic rate would be the discount rate that gave a Resource Accounting Budget (RAB) or stock charge of 0%, so the HMT discount rate is used provided the RAB charge is greater than 0%. Should the HMT discount rate result in a RAB charge calculation giving a negative value then the intrinsic rate is used instead, meaning that that RAB charge will take a value of 0%.</p><p>The most recent forecasts for the student finance system can be found here: <a href="https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/student-loan-forecasts-for-england/2022-23" target="_blank">https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/student-loan-forecasts-for-england/2022-23</a>.</p><p>The net present value of future repayments was calculated by discounting all future repayments at a rate of RPI -1.3% per year until the end of financial year 2029/30, and -0.2% per year from financial year 2030/31, to the same point in time as the loan outlay or loan balance. This is the discount rate for financial instruments set by HMT in 2022 and is intended to reflect of the cost of government borrowing. The most recent student loan forecasts using the 2023 discount rate set by HMT will be published at the end of June 2024.</p><p>The department has carefully assessed the impact of changes and published a full and comprehensive analysis in the Higher Education Reform and Consultation Document Equality Impact Assessment, which is attached.</p><p>The student loan repayment system under Plan 5 is progressive, with repayments being positively correlated with lifetime earnings. The highest earners make the largest individual contributions to the system overall, and the lowest earners are required to contribute the least.</p><p>Lower earners, whether male or female, are protected. If a borrower’s income is below the repayment threshold, they will not be required to make any repayments at all. At the end of the loan term, any outstanding loan debt, including interest accrued, will be written off at no detriment to the borrower. No commercial loans offer this level of protection.</p><p>The department will continue to keep the student finance system, including repayment terms, under review to ensure that it remains sustainable and delivers value for money for students and the taxpayer.</p> answering member printed Baroness Barran attachment 1 file name HL4035 HL4036 Attachment - The Government Financial Reporting Manual.pdf title The Government Financial Reporting Manual 2 file name HL4035 HL4036 Attachment - Higher Education Reform and Consultation Document Equality Impact Assessment.pdf title Higher Education Reform and Consultation Document grouped question UIN HL4036 question first answered 29/04/2024 15:08:37 answering member 4703 label Biography information for Baroness Barran
tabling member	4286 label Biography information for Lord Mendelsohn

1713295

registered interest
date	23/04/2024
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Students: Loans
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of changes to the student loan repayment system, introduced in August 2023, on female students.
tabling member printed	Lord Mendelsohn
uin	HL4036
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/04/2024 answer text <p>Student loans are valued in the department’s annual accounts in line with the International Financial Reporting Standard 9 and set out in The Government Financial Reporting Manual which is attached.</p><p>Under which where future cash flows are discounted to measure the fair value of a financial asset, this should be done using the higher of the rate intrinsic to the financial instrument or the HMT discount rate. HMT set the discount rate annually based on a 10 year rolling average of gilt yields. For student loans the intrinsic rate would be the discount rate that gave a Resource Accounting Budget (RAB) or stock charge of 0%, so the HMT discount rate is used provided the RAB charge is greater than 0%. Should the HMT discount rate result in a RAB charge calculation giving a negative value then the intrinsic rate is used instead, meaning that that RAB charge will take a value of 0%.</p><p>The most recent forecasts for the student finance system can be found here: <a href="https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/student-loan-forecasts-for-england/2022-23" target="_blank">https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/student-loan-forecasts-for-england/2022-23</a>.</p><p>The net present value of future repayments was calculated by discounting all future repayments at a rate of RPI -1.3% per year until the end of financial year 2029/30, and -0.2% per year from financial year 2030/31, to the same point in time as the loan outlay or loan balance. This is the discount rate for financial instruments set by HMT in 2022 and is intended to reflect of the cost of government borrowing. The most recent student loan forecasts using the 2023 discount rate set by HMT will be published at the end of June 2024.</p><p>The department has carefully assessed the impact of changes and published a full and comprehensive analysis in the Higher Education Reform and Consultation Document Equality Impact Assessment, which is attached.</p><p>The student loan repayment system under Plan 5 is progressive, with repayments being positively correlated with lifetime earnings. The highest earners make the largest individual contributions to the system overall, and the lowest earners are required to contribute the least.</p><p>Lower earners, whether male or female, are protected. If a borrower’s income is below the repayment threshold, they will not be required to make any repayments at all. At the end of the loan term, any outstanding loan debt, including interest accrued, will be written off at no detriment to the borrower. No commercial loans offer this level of protection.</p><p>The department will continue to keep the student finance system, including repayment terms, under review to ensure that it remains sustainable and delivers value for money for students and the taxpayer.</p> answering member printed Baroness Barran attachment 1 file name HL4035 HL4036 Attachment - The Government Financial Reporting Manual.pdf title The Government Financial Reporting Manual 2 file name HL4035 HL4036 Attachment - Higher Education Reform and Consultation Document Equality Impact Assessment.pdf title Higher Education Reform and Consultation Document grouped question UIN HL4035 question first answered 29/04/2024 15:08:37 answering member 4703 label Biography information for Baroness Barran
tabling member	4286 label Biography information for Lord Mendelsohn

1700694

registered interest
date	15/04/2024
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Students: Loans
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what is their most recent estimate of (1) the Resource Accounting and Budgeting charge, and (2) the estimated cost to Government of their support for the student finance system, based on future loan write-offs and interest subsidies, (a) in net present-value terms, and (b) as a proportion of the initial loan outlay.
tabling member printed	Lord Johnson of Marylebone
uin	HL3758
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/04/2024 answer text <p>In the 2022/23 financial year, the Resource Accounting and Budgeting (RAB) charge, which is the government subsidy on student loans, was £5.5 billion, or 27% of the £20.0 billion of loans issued that financial year.</p><p>Of student loans issued in 2023/24, the government is expected to subsidise about £5.6 billion, or:</p><ul><li>28% of full-time Plan 2 loans,</li><li>23% of part-time Plan 2 loans,</li><li>48% of Plan 2 Advanced Learner Loans,</li><li>27% of full-time Plan 5 loans,</li><li>19% of part-time Plan 5 loans,</li><li>37% of Plan 5 Advanced Learner Loans, and</li><li>0% of Master’s loans</li></ul><p> </p><p>These forecasts are subject to change. The next statistical publication on student finance forecasts, which will contain the final RAB figures for the 2023/24 financial year, will be available at the end of June 2024.</p> answering member printed Baroness Barran question first answered 29/04/2024 11:14:22 answering member 4703 label Biography information for Baroness Barran
tabling member	4039 label Biography information for Lord Johnson of Marylebone

1693571

registered interest
date	04/03/2024
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Students: Loans
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the maximum value of a student maintenance loan (a) was in 2018 and (b) is as of 4 March 2024; and if she will make an estimate of the real-term change in that value since 2018.
tabling member constituency	Warwick and Leamington
tabling member printed	Matt Western
uin	16955
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/03/2024 answer text <p>The maximum maintenance loan for an undergraduate student living away from parents outside London in the 2023/24 academic year is £9,978. The equivalent maximum maintenance loan was £8,430 in the 2017/18 academic year. This is a 13.9% reduction in the real-terms value of the maximum loan. This figure has been derived by using the Retail Price Index (RPIX) measure of inflation, applied at Quarter 1 in each academic year throughout this time period, as published by the Office for Budget Responsibility in November 2023, which can be found here: <a href="https://obr.uk/efo/economic-and-fiscal-outlook-november-2023/" target="_blank">https://obr.uk/efo/economic-and-fiscal-outlook-november-2023/</a>.</p><p>The government has continued to increase maximum loans and grants for living and other costs each year. Maximum support has been increased by 2.8% for the 2023/24 academic year with a further 2.5% increase announced for 2024/25.</p><p>The government recognises the additional cost of living pressures that have arisen this year and that are impacting students. The department has already made £276 million of student premium and mental health funding available for the 2023/24 academic year to support successful outcomes for students including disadvantaged students.</p><p>The department is now making a further £10 million of one off support available to support student mental health and hardship funding. This funding will complement the help universities are providing through their own bursary, scholarship and hardship support schemes.</p><p>Over the period between 2022/23 to 2024/25, the government will have provided support worth £104 billion to help families throughout the UK with the cost of living including to meet increased household energy costs. This is an average of £3,700 per household. This will have eased some of the pressure on family budgets and so will in turn enable many families to provide additional support to their children in higher education to help them meet increased living costs.</p><p>The department has also frozen maximum tuition fees for the 2023/24 and 2024/25 academic years to deliver better value for students and to keep the cost of higher education under control. By 2024/25, maximum fees will have been frozen for seven years.</p> answering member constituency Harlow answering member printed Robert Halfon question first answered 13/03/2024 16:17:28 answering member 3985 label Biography information for Robert Halfon
tabling member	4617 label Biography information for Matt Western