Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many EU national student loan borrowers living abroad have made no loan repayments in the past 12 months.

There are 103,400 EU borrowers living overseas who have a loan which has become eligible for repayment. Of these, 43,700 are earning above the repayment threshold or have unknown earnings but have made no loan repayments in the last 12 months.

An EU borrower is a borrower who was originally domiciled in an EU country prior to entering higher education in England. Tuition fee funding for new EU students in England without ‘settled’ or ‘pre-settled’ status’ ceased in the 2021/2022 academic year. However, those continuing a course remain eligible for financial support for the duration of their course, in addition to those covered by the Withdrawal Agreements, subject to meeting other residency and course requirements.

The government is resolute in our commitment to protecting public money in higher education and we are taking firm action to address serious concerns about the exploitation of the student funding system.

If borrowers based overseas fail to remain in contact with the Student Loans Company (SLC), they are placed in arrears by SLC applying a default required repayment rate, and the outstanding balance can be pursued as debt.

The public expects these debts to be paid and so do we. That is why we are investing in the SLC’s ability to collect debt and working closely with them to go further on getting back what is owed.