Scandal of foreign students who've SCARPERED owing Britain £1.2 BILLION in student loans
ALMOST 80,000 foreign students have scarpered abroad leaving the British tax payer facing a £1.2 BILLION bill in unpaid student loans.
Student loans scandal: Almost 80,000 leave UK owing Government cash
The Student Loans Company (SLC), which is charged with tracking down former university students who haven't paid off their loans, has admitted that 78,700 former students who owe money have now left the UK, which means it has to reach across the globe in an attempt to claw back the unpaid debts.
These students, who between them owe the Government an average of £15,000 each, are scattered all over the globe with outstanding accounts registered as far away as Malawi, Pakistan, Uganda, Iraq and Argentina.
And experts fear the situation is only going to get worse with total outstanding student debt estimated to reach a staggering £1TRILLION (£1,000,000,000,000) by 2035.
Of the students who moved abroad after having studied at an English university a total of 17,600 are known to be behind with their repayments, another 49,000 are said to be earning below the threshold for repayments to kick in with the remaining 12,100 having failed to state how much they are earning and so categorised as being in arrears.
Of these students who are now living abroad and not paying back their student loans around one quarter - 21,800 - were EU students who got a loan to study at an English university and has then left the country with their debt unpaid.
It is estimated that around 400 students disappear abroad every month owing on average a combined £8.5million.
European students 'uncertain' about their future post-Brexit
The countries where the SLC believes there are the largest number of students who are failing to make any payments against their debts include:
Australia - 9,900
Cyprus - 5,900
USA - 5,800
France - 4,200
Germany - 3,400
Spain - 3,300
Canada - 2,600
New Zealand - 2,600
Ireland - 2,000
Greece - 1,700
United Arab Emirates - 1,700
Poland - 1,600
China - 1,400
Bulgaria - 1,200
Italy - 1,200
Lithuania - 1,200
Student debt: But the tax payer could end up picking up the tab for 80,000 foreign students
It is feared that many students who feel overwhelmed by their debts may choose to live abroad in the hope that they can avoid being chased for the money.
In the UK the SLC has an agreement with the taxman so that repayments are taken automatically from former students' pay packets once they start earning over an agreed amount.
The SLC current balance books show that a total of £76billion is owed by around 5million former students who took out Government loans to cover their tuition fees or living expenses.
Last year then Universities minister Jo Johnson said "stronger action" would be taken to trace borrowers who vanished abroad and said that if necessary prosecutions could be brought against offenders.
It is feared that the problem of UK student debtors disappearing abroad will only get worse as graduates saddled with the £9,000-per-year tuition fees, introduced by the Coalition government, have yet to start filtering through the system. Total outstanding student debt is estimated to reach £1trillion (£1,000,000,000,000) by 2035.
John O'Connell, Chief Executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance: "Taxpayers will be concerned that such huge sums of money are not being repaid.
"The Student Loans Company has to get a handle on its processes, and universities need to do more to ensure that students are serious about study as opposed to picking up cheap loans they have no intention of paying back.
"The SLC have to remember that when money isn't recovered, it is taxpayers who are left to pick up the bill."
Daylight robe-ery? Almost 80,000 students leave UK owing British tax payer huge sums
A Student Loans Company spokesman said: "The vast majority of borrowers meet their obligation to repay their loans when their income reaches the payment threshold.
"In this case 49,000 students have yet to earn enough to start repaying and when they do, we expect them to meet the repayment terms they signed up for when they took out their student loans.
"SLC is committed to protecting the public purse and recovering every penny of tax payer monies owed.
"Government's repayment strategy will boost SLC's capability to trace incompliant borrowers, pursue and recover outstanding student loan debt, and includes the provision for the potential use of a number of sanctions."
The Department for Education has been approached for a comment.