Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many individuals in receipt of loans from the Student Loan Company (SLC) are (1) currently out of contact, in that the SLC lacks up-to-date contact information for them, (2) in contact, but behind on repayments that are due, and (3) subject to the SLC being unable to calculate what the payment should be, expressed (a) in absolute figures, and (b) as a percentage of (i) all borrowers across the whole loan book, (ii) all UK domiciled borrowers, and (iii) for other non-UK EU borrowers.

The Student Loans Company (SLC) administers student loans for each of the UK Government Administrations. Statistics covering the repayments of these loans are published annually by SLC separately for each UK Government Administration as part of the Student loans, debt and repayment Statistical First Releases (SFRs)::

http://www.slc.co.uk/official-statistics/student-loans-debt-and-repayment.aspx

Information on the repayment statuses of home and EU domiciled borrowers, who have been liable to repay, by cohort, can be found in tables 3A and 3B of the SFRs.

At the beginning of the financial year 2015-16, there were 2.97 million borrowers of loans through the English student finance system, who have been liable to repay, and had at least one full tax year processed. Of these, 33,400 (1%) still had their repayment status to be confirmed, 13,500 (<1%) had defaulted on their repayments, and 9,200 (<1%) had not supplied their income and so been placed in arrears.

Of the 2.97 million borrowers, 39,100 were domiciled in the EU prior to study. Of these, 3,300 (8%) still had their repayment status to be confirmed, 1,400 (3%) had defaulted on their repayments, and 5,000 (13%) had not supplied their income and so been placed in arrears.