Would you pay back student loan if you didnt have to?

[strokey]

My husband is Scandinavian, we lived there for 6ish years while he did his degree. They pay students a "wage" to study over there.

After he graduated we moved to England and now we have children we wont be going back.

I don't think he should pay it back, because it doesn't affect our credit rating over here, and we wont be chased for it. He isn't sure.

When we first moved back to England the tax credits people thought that we had earned hardly anything in the previous year and sent us a check for 5k ish, which he happily kept. (we had only been in the country a few months and he had been earning abroad) Now he is older he has become more honourable I think.

My reasoning is that most people wouldn't pay it back. Am I right? or no?

[ShatnersBassoon]

How do repayments work in his home country? Should he be paying it now if he was earning over there? Surely there are arrangements in place for people who leave the country in which they studied, otherwise graduates would be leaving Britain in droves to escape massive student debts. Assume he will be chased at some point.

I don't know why you put the tax credits fraud info in. Are you using it to demonstrate that you're generally dishonest people so shirking responsibility for the student debt isn't a moral dilemma, more a practical one?

[strokey]

Im not sure... I think he should've settled up before he left the country. I don't know.

Keeping tax credits is benefit fraud I know. But no way we would've given it back. We had just paid for a international move and had no cash back then. It was pre-recession and I do feel a bit guilty now that the country is in such a state and we are no longer poor!

[strokey]

I mentioned the tax credits to show that he wasn't concerned about the dishonesty of keeping money we weren't entitled to when we had none. So its not as if Im asking him to do something which is likely to cause him sleepless nights.

[ShatnersBassoon]

Very good