To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) how many people owe money to the Student Loans Company, broken down by (a) those due to repay, (b) those with deferred repayments and (c) those not in repayment; (92069)

The mortgage-style student loan system started in 1990 and new borrowing in that scheme ceased in 1998. Deferment is the feature of that now-closed mortgage-style loans system that protects borrowers during periods in which their earnings are below the repayment threshold. Loans in the income-contingent repayment scheme that was introduced from 1998 are not deferred: deductions stop automatically if a borrower’s income falls below the threshold.

Similarly, arrears in the student loans system almost exclusively apply to the closed mortgage-style system. Arrears denote that a borrower is behind with payments that they are due to have made: this does not arise in repayment of income-contingent loans through the tax system. The number of borrowers in arrears on mortgage-style loans, on which new borrowing ceased in 1998, represents 10 percent. of the total number of people who have borrowed under that scheme. 20 percent. of those in arrears were making repayments, but had not cleared their arrears. Included among the total in arrears at any given time, there are a number of borrowers who will be on the way to deferment status, but who have not yet completed the application process for deferment.

The table shows UK publicly-owned student loan borrowers in March 2006.