Hi folks
I'm starting a PhD in September after working for 5 years. I have a student loan through the student loans co that is currently deducted from my salary by PAYE. Has anyone been through the procedure of stopping their payments whilst they go back to studying? I phoned up the Student Loans Co yesterday and the guy on the other end sounded like he'd just been lobotomised. He told me to phone back on a weekday. I am getting the impression that this is not going to be easy.... anyone been through it?

If you are not earning over 15K a year they won't take payments - student or not - but you will keep gaining interest on the amount left whilst you are not making payments (you acquire interest even if you are a FT or PT student)

Thanks sixkitten. I just wondered whether I would get a rude letter in the post for not informing them why I wasn't making payments. I don't pay very much back towards them at the moment anyway, I am sure that it barely, if at all covers the interest due to inflation.

"I phoned up the Student Loans Co yesterday and the guy on the other end sounded like he'd just been lobotomised."
lol
Hope he is able to work it out, I have had bad experiences about customer phonelines in general....

Be very careful with this & check your bank statements. The SLC randomly started taking money out of my account in January (no idea why), when I was in the States researching so couldn't do anything about it. They have been singularly unhelpful since then, feeding me a whole host of different lines about whether or not I should be paying them money ... All very irritating. Have finally managed to sort it out but they will only pay me back three months worth of money. They are, indeed, mostly lobotomized.

Hi

As SixKitten says if you aren't making over 15,000 pounds per annum you can stop your repayments. To ensure this happens and they don't continue taking payments I suggested you send them a registered letter detailing your situation and follow it up with a phone call.

ilovebdt