Tuesday 8 August 2017

HMRC Sits On Student Loan Overpayments


The Telegraph reports that figures released under the Freedom of Information Act show that almost 90,000 students continued making payments on their student loans after they had already repaid it in full in the 2015-16 tax year.

A total of £51m was overpaid during that year.

Experts branded the level of overpayment “staggering” and said that the Student Loans Company should be doing more to offer graduates a transparent and efficient service, with one MP demanding in Your Money today that the quango “end the scourge” of making borrowers overpay.


So what?

I hear you ask.

What has this to do with HMRC?

Read on.....

The majority of students repay their loans through their payroll, with the money being collected by employers and paid to HMRC. Employers must report these figures to HMRC monthly, and graduates can see on each payslip how much they have repaid.

However, despite HMRC collecting repayment information monthly, it only reports the figure once a year to Student Loans Company – at the end of the tax year. Nor does HMRC pass on the information immediately.

In fact, the Student Loans Company has indicated that some data reaches it only seven months after the tax-year end. This means some graduates will wait until November to find how much they have paid.

The figures will only be accurate to April 5 of that year, meaning the statement is already months out of date when it is sent.

It is only once the Student Loans Company has received this information that it calculates the loan outstanding on the account – which is when it becomes clear that some have overpaid.

Unsurprisingly, HMRC are very very slow at repaying the overpayments!

Graham Farquhar, a partner at accounting firm RSM, nails the hypocrisy:
It’s disappointing. HMRC is keen that employers pay everything in real time and there is no such thing as a year’s grace. 

It’s interesting that this doesn’t seem to apply to HMRC itself.”
Oh, and don't forget, Steve Lamey was recently suspended as CEO of the SLC.

So what???

Lamey, as loyal readers know, used to work for HMRC a.o. as chief operations officer and chief executive of its tax credits and child benefits division.

How odd!!
Tax does have to be taxing.

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3 comments:

  1. HMRC senior management just can't get anything right. If they spent a little less time with the virtue signalling diversity PR, and social mobility crap (which they don't really believe in anyway e.g. stories of staff being placed into destitution as a result of their enabling management misconduct), and started to spend more time addressing the issue of bullying (which has a massive impact on real work outcomes) and the poor performance of management then the endless news of major cock ups would be history.
    These holier than thou cretins are never in the wrong though, so I won't be holding my breath...

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  2. If I were awaiting a refund I wouldn't expect it to be dealt with quickly, remember they are a bunch of hypocritical bullying scumbags.

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  3. HMRC collects my student loan payment each month - however it only pays to the SLC once a year and usually months after the end of the tax year. In the meantime the SLC add interest to my loan balance each month so I am being charged interest on a higher balance that is correct due to HMRC not passing on my payments - this is an absolute scam and needs to be investigated

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