Student Loans

Baroness Massey of Darwen Excerpts

Thursday 23rd July 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay]

My Lords, this website is certainly an improvement on the situation when I was paying back my student loan, when it was very difficult to find out the balance and how much still needed to be paid. That led to many people making excessive repayments, which then had to be paid back. It might be helpful to your Lordships if I cite briefly from the message on the new website, which makes it very clear that “there is no obligation” to make a voluntary repayment and that students should

“carefully consider whether it’s appropriate to make voluntary repayments because any outstanding balance is written off at the end of the loan”.

That makes the situation quite clear.

[Baroness Massey of Darwen (Lab) [V]]

My Lords, the Student Loans Company states that the online repayments service was

“extensively researched and tested prior to launch”,

and says:

“We constantly listen to our customers to improve our service”.


Are the Government satisfied that this service is being adequately monitored? How will they ensure that comments are taken on board and changes made where necessary?

[Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay]

My Lords, that is a key example of our taking on board comments and making changes. That is exactly what we have done in response to the representation from Martin Lewis pointing out that, on one section of the website, the message that he was keen to see was not present. It has now been put there.