Hey guys,

Just wondering, if you are in receipt of a stipend while doing your PhD, are you expected to make repayments on your student loan?
Just recently received a letter from SLC, asking me to provide evidence of how I'm supporting myself financially, and am a bit worried now that they might want back payments from when I started my PhD (although it's only been a couple of months!)

Thanks

Yikes. Can't answer your question, but I would technically be in the same boat.

The rule is that you only start to make repayments once you are earning more than £15,000 p/a. However, I don't know if that is gross income or net income, and I don't know whether - as a non-taxable stipend - your funding counts as taxable income. It doesn't count as taxable for income tax, so I would have thought/hoped not.

However, the standard UK stipend for PhD students is £12,940 p/a, rising to £13,xxx in September. Unless you're getting extra funding from somewhere else and are receiving more than £15,000 p/a, I doubt very much whether you have any reason to worry.

======= Date Modified 01 Jun 2009 11:06:34 =======
That's what I thought, since it isn't taxable income then you wouldn't be expected to make contributions. However, with regards to the amounts, my stipend is just over £1250 a month, and previously when I worked full time for a while, I earned around £1100 a month (after tax) and still made small contributions to my student loan every month, hence why I'm slightly concerned!!!

No, you dont start repaying till you are in employment. You are still a student so they can not take any money off you. They are probably just enquiring about your situation since you finished your degree!

It doesn't matter whether or not you're a student - it's your income threshold. So if your stipend is less than £15K you won't pay anything back. Some PhD students in London will actually be over that e.g. those funded by Wellcome or some very generous charities.

I doubt they would collect back payments. I think it's just routine for them to chase up your employment status about 9 months after your graduate.

More info here:
http://www.studentloanrepayment.co.uk/portal/page?_pageid=93,3867326&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL

I'm not sure about that. I've deferred my student loan ever since the mid 1990s due to not working for disability reasons. But for 18 months only I received a PhD grant (right at the end of my part-time award AHRC gave part-timers a stipend too) and that had to be declared to the Student Loans company and seemingly taken into account as income.

Mine was way below the limit though. Now I have no stipend again I am definitely eligible for deferring :)

I'm really worried about this now! Although my stipend is my only income personally, I own a house on my parents' behalf which puts my income on paper well above the threshold, although neither the stipend or the rent does so separately. I've just trawled the websites (SLC and student loan repayment) and found only one reference:

'The repayment of loans is repaid through the tax system, and only begins after the student has left higher education and is earning over £15,000'.

I think I may ring them up as - if I should be repaying - I don't want to have it build up any further as I'd already owe 9 months back payments.

The thing is though, how would they calculate the repayments? As we know, you don't start repaying untill you're earning over 15k a year, which after tax amounts to about £1022 a month? Most stipends are around 12-13k a year minimum, and since they're tax free, this amounts to approximately this amount per month too, but technically as a PhD student, we're not earning over 15k????
Very strange....... I somehow have a feeling though that I'm going to have to start repayments soon.....

Right, I called them and they said that a grant doesn't count, only taxable income counts. What a relief! :-)

I can confirm this as I worked for the council side of student loans. If you are not paying tax you do not have to make student loan payments. You can chose to opt in.

A