The Student Loans Company (SLC) carries out investigations where fraud is suspected, as well as sample checks to identify possible fraud. The SLC accesses a wide range of publicly available information for the purposes of verifying a customer\u2019s eligibility and detecting and preventing fraud, and this may include publicly available social media content. The SLC only accesses information that is in the public domain; it does not use information sourced from social media in isolation to make a determination on a case; and it does not conduct ongoing monitoring or surveillance of students\u2019 social media.<\/p>
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The SLC provides a privacy notice to all students during their application for finance, which is also available on the SLC\u2019s website. This notice sets out how students\u2019 personal information is processed and used by the company, including that both the information provided by the student during their application and publicly available information, such as that on social media and other public platforms, may be used to detect, investigate and prevent crime including fraud.<\/p>
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The SLC is also in the final stages of drafting a social media acceptable use policy, which covers all aspects of the company\u2019s social media use. This policy is due to be published on the SLC\u2019s website next month.<\/p>
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The policy covers any publicly available social media platform. Currently, the SLC accesses publicly available content on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.<\/p>
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The policy will be reviewed at least annually or more often if business requirements, legislation, or regulations change.<\/p>
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In 2018-19, the SLC investigated 3,829 cases in relation to potential application fraud (out of a total of 2.8 million applicants and students). A further 5,289 cases were investigated in relation to repayment evasion (out of a total 5.7 million repayers). As part of the process for both preventing application fraud and eliminating repayment evasion, investigators may review publicly available information, such as that on social media and other public platforms. This does not occur in every investigation.<\/p>
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To date in financial year (FY) 2019-20, and in FY 2018-19, no individuals received compensation or redress from the SLC as a result of wrongful decisions by the SLC's Counter Fraud Team. In FY 2017-18, one individual received an ex-gratia payment of £100.<\/p>
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