To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what recent assessment he has made of the merits of increasing the salary threshold at which people are required to make payments towards their student loans. (301475)

The repayment threshold is currently £15,000. The threshold is agreed between my Department and the Devolved Administrations. Early this year, the decision to raise the threshold from April 2010 by inflation was cancelled because the relevant RPI rate was negative, meaning the threshold would have been reduced and borrowers would have had to pay more. Instead the threshold was frozen at £15,000 for a further 12 months. We will be considering the threshold for April 2011 early in the new year.