Section:GDN 1N PaGe:16 Edition Date:190821 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 20/8/2019 20:21 cYanmaGentaYellowb
- The Guardian Wednesday 21 Au g u st 2019
(^16) National
Student loan overpayments
of £28m yet to be refunded
Mattha Busby
The government is holding on to more
than £28m in student loan overpay-
ments by graduates.
More than half a million people in
England overpaid their student loans
Repayments are governed by the
Department for Business, Innovation
and Skills. Students from the poorest
families borrow more than £50,
on average – for tuition fees and living
costs –while interest rates of up to 6.3%
increase the debts. The SLC said it had
contacted every one who had overpa id
to arrange refunds and urged all grad-
uates who had taken out loans to keep
their contact details up-to-date.
A spokesman said: “We want all cus-
tomers to repay the right amount and
not to over-repay on their loan.”
He said the company wrote to
people with two years of repayments
left to suggest they pa id by direct debit
rather than through their employer to
help prevent over-repayments. “Cus-
tomers who do not participate in the
direct debit scheme can also claim a
refund at any time by contacting us.”
The SLC had also started to receive
payment information from Revenue
and Customs to help “prevent custom-
ers from over-repaying and provide
them with more up-to-date inform-
ation about their loan repayment”.
Until recently, the SLC received
repayment information only at the end
of the tax year , meaning there could
be a lag before the repayment system
recognised the loan had been paid off.
For instance, even if a graduate paid
off their loan in November, payments
could continue to be deducted from
their salary until April.
The biggest annual amount not
refunded was from 2015-16, with
£6.3m not yet paid back. From 2016-
17, £5.9m of overpayments were still
outstanding, the BBC reported.
A government spokesman said
steps had been taken to help avoid
overpayments in the future.
over a nine-year period, by an average
of nearly £600 , Student Loans Com-
pany (SLC) data shows. The fi gures,
obtained via freedom of information
requests by the higher education pub-
lication Research Professional News,
show £308m was overpaid between
2009-10 and 2017-18, and that almost
a tenth of that has not been refunded.
In brief
Crime
Murder inquiry as man
shot in County Down
Police
Two arrests linked to
death of teenage boy
Cinema
No Time to Die revealed
as next Bond fi lm title
Crime
‘Armed man’ reported
near Home Offi ce site
A man has been shot dead at a
petrol station in County Down. The
shooting took place in the village of
Waringstown on Monday night.
It is understood the victim was
shot close to the petrol station
forecourt. The area remained sealed
off late on Monday night with
police in attendance. A statement
from the Police Service of Northern
Ireland said it had launched a
murder inquiry. DCI Michelle Shaw
Two men have been arrested on
suspicion of attempting to pervert
the course of justice over the death
of 17-year-old Yousef Makki.
Yousef, right, died from a stab
wound after an argument with a
friend, known as Boy A, in Hale
Barns, Greater Manchester, on 2
March. Boy A, who is 17, said he
had stabb ed Yousef in self-defence
and was found not guilty of murder
or manslaughter. He was given a
16-month detention training order
after admitting perverting the
course of justice and possess ing a
bladed article.
The 25th James Bond fi lm will be
called No Time to Die , in news
announced on Twitter and YouTube
in a short video featuring its star,
Daniel Craig.
The latest 007 adventure has
had a number of problems. During
production, Craig injured his ankle
while soon after a crew member
also suff er ed injuries. In June,
a man was charged with hiding a
camera in the women’s toilets.
N ew cast members include
the Oscar winner Rami Malek as
the main villain and the Captain
Marvel star Lashana Lynch , who is
rumoured to be taking over from
007 at the end of the fi lm, set to be
Craig’s last. The fi lm will be released
in April 2020. Benjamin Lee
A man was arrested outside a
Home Offi ce building in London
yesterday on suspicion of possessi ng
an off ensive weapon and making
threats to kill.
The incident came days after a
civil servant was attacked outside
one of the department’s other
premises in the capital.
Police were called shortly before
lunchtime to St Thomas Street in
Southwark after reports of a man
armed with a knife and a hammer.
A man in his 30s was “fl agged down
and taken into custody” , police said.
The re is an immigration reporting
centre on the street.
The incident was not treated as
terror-related and it was understood
no one was injured. Ben Quinn
said: “Our inquiries are at a very
early stage and I am appealing for
anyone with information that could
potentially assist our investigation
to please get in touch by calling 101.”
Dolores Kelly, the Social
Democratic and Labour party
member for Upper Bann in the
Northern Ireland assembly, said the
community was in shock. “This is
a quiet, settled village and people
are appalled that violence has been
brought on to their streets. ”
The Democratic Unionist
party assembly member Carla
Lockhart said: “It is shocking at
any time for someone to be shot
in the constituency but more so
in somewhere like Waringstown.
It is a generally quiet village with
a thriving population and I would
condemn this in the strongest
terms. ” PA Media
Another boy was sentenced to a
four-month detention training order
after he pleaded guilty to carrying a
knife in an incident earlier that day.
Greater Manchester police said on
Monday that two men, aged 18 and
22, had been arrested on suspicion
of attempting to pervert the course
of justice and released under
investigation. Josh Halliday
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