Committee publication · Correspondence · 27 May 2026
Correspondence from the Chair to the Department for Education, requesting information on Student Finance, dated 30 April 2026
From: Treasury Committee
Summary
The Treasury Committee Chair requests information from the Department for Education regarding an inquiry into student loans and taxation of graduates. The letter seeks presentations, scripts, and approval records from 2011 onwards relating to promotional campaigns that compared student loan salary deductions to mobile phone contracts, plus detailed financial forecasts on graduate income, RAB charges, and voluntary repayments.
Key findings
- Committee has opened inquiry into student loans and taxation of graduates following recent media reporting on 2011-2017 promotional campaigns
- Requests actual presentations and scripts used in student recruitment roadshows from inception to present day
- Seeks approval records and papers relating to Department's vetting of campaign wording
- Requests graduate income forecasts used in recent RAB charge calculations and loan repayment proportions across all student loan plans
- Seeks data on voluntary repayment forecasts by plan and actual voluntary repayments broken down by income decile annually
Tone
ProceduralTopics
student-financehigher-educationpublic-financeconsumer-protection
Key actors
Dame Meg Hillier MP, Treasury Committee, Department for Education, Susan Acland-Hood
Notable line
“Recent reporting 1 has drawn attention to the promotion campaigns for prospective students between 2011 and 2017 which described the salary deductions for student loans as comparable to the cost of a mobile phone contract.”
Key Quotes
“The Treasury Committee has opened an inquiry into student loans and the taxation of graduates.”
“Recent reporting 1 has drawn attention to the promotion campaigns for prospective students between 2011 and 2017 which described the salary deductions for student loans as comparable to the cost of a mobile phone contract.”
Source · parliament.uk record ↗