Students: Loans

(asked on 31st October 2018) - View Source

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to table A.1 on page 231 of the Office for Budget Responsibility's Economic and fiscal outlook: October 2018 publication, what estimate he has made of the loss to the public purse of revenue arising from the sale of student loans in each year of the forecast period.


Answered by
Elizabeth Truss Portrait
Elizabeth Truss
This question was answered on 5th November 2018

The programme of sales of pre-2012 income-contingent student loans is intended to raise £15bn in total by 2022/23, reducing Public Sector Net Debt. Each sale is subject to market conditions and a value for money test, which takes into account foregone repayments and assesses whether the government is better off holding or selling the assets when taking account of the time value of money, the effect of inflation, the riskiness of the asset and the opportunity cost of having money tied up in that asset. The government does not publish a year-by-year estimate of the sales programme, as the timing and size of sales remain flexible in order to maximise value for money. The National Audit Office reviewed the first sale and concluded that the government achieved value for money.

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