|
If you are earning in excess of £15,000 per annum, your loan will become due for repayment on the 6th April following the date that you complete or leave your course.
If you withdraw from your course prior to your original intended graduation date, you will be eligible to start repayment of your student loan in the April following your last date of attendance.
If for any reason the April following your last date of attendance has already passed (e.g. you withdraw from your course but forget to tell us), your repayments will commence as soon as can be arranged, and you will be liable for repayments only from then.
The Student Loans Company (of whom Student Finance Wales is a service delivery partner) will advise HM Revenue and Customs (formerly the Inland Revenue) that your loan has entered repayment. They in turn will instruct your employer to deduct repayments from your gross income at the rate of 9% of any income earned in excess of £15,000 a year, £1250 per month or £288 per week.
If you are self-employed or go to work abroad, you will make repayments directly to the Student Loans Company or HMRC.
Why do you need my national insurance number?
It is extremely important that you provide us with your national insurance number since this will be required to enable the collection of student loan repayment deductions from your salary when you enter repayment. Because it is so important that we have this, there may be a delay in the payment of your student support if you do not supply it.
How is interest calculated on my loan?
There are two options for establishing the interest rate for income contingent loans. The first is to use Retail Prices Index (RPI), or the bank base rate, whichever is lower. There is also a low interest cap linked to that option, which means that the loan interest rate can be cut in-year, when the base rate plus 1% across a group of banks, is lower than RPI, as happened in December 2008 for the first time. The second option is for Welsh Ministers not to apply an interest rate.
Whilst to date the March Retail Price Index (RPI) has set the student loan interest rate, the Minister for Children, Education, Lifelong Learning and Skills decided not to apply an interest rate for the academic year 2009/10 - effectively making the rate 0%.
If you repay through PAYE or Self-Assessment, interest accrual will be suspended from the start of the tax year until the end-of-year repayment details are received from HMRC. Interest will then be calculated and applied to your account retrospectively.
| 