Clause 2
Sale of Student Loans Bill
4:45 pm
Sarah Teather (Shadow Secretary of State for Education and Skills, Innovation, Universities and Skills; Brent East, Liberal Democrat)
I have a couple of questions about subsection (4). If the Government lowered the threshold at which loans could be paid back, the purchaser would get more money than they expected. The subsection will allow the payment of more money as compensation if purchasers get less money as a result of the threshold being raised. What will happen if a future Government do the reverse? Is reverse indemnity written in, or does it only go one way?
On subsection (6), what will happen if borrowers have a dispute? Currently, they must deal with the Student Loans Company. I get an awful lot of complaints that the SLC has failed miserably to stop taking payments after the loan has been paid off. It is quite a common piece of casework in most MPs’ offices. How will the Bill change those arrangements? Will graduates have to deal with the private sector, or will they continue to deal with the SLC? Who is the intermediary mentioned in subsection (6)?