Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of calculating student loan repayments on an annual basis so that people with fluctuating monthly incomes are not penalised and required to make larger repayments than those with stable incomes.

Student loan repayments for borrowers in the UK are collected via the tax system. This means employers deduct repayments from employees' pay checks for each pay period that their earnings exceed the relevant repayment threshold.

If at the end of the year, the borrower’s total income is below the annual repayment threshold, they may reclaim any repayments that were made where a pay period threshold was exceeded.

For both business and individuals, this is an efficient and effective collection method and means that the loan repayment system follows closely the operation of the tax system. The department has no plans to depart from this system.