Deferring student loan repayments

[Summerhappy]

Hi everyone, I was just reading that anyone earning less that £38k can apply to defer their student loan repayments for 12 months, and keep reapplying every 12 months.

Has anyone done this?

Am I reading this correctly, that you could keep deferring until the loan is written off after 25/30years?

Are there any drawbacks?!

Seems weird that you can do this but there isn’t much info. Thanks everyone.

Different loans have different terms so you'd need to check the terms of your loans.

Can you link to this please

I think this is only for pre -1998 loans https://nationaldebtline.org/fact-sheet-library/repaying-student-loans-ew/

Isn’t it just for pre 1998 loans? And I don’t think these have the same write off provisions.

Mine was 93-96, deferred every year as I never met the salary threshold, written off when I reached 50.

I've deferred mine every year since I graduated. 1997 start. I have to do it every 12 months but it's just a matter of scanning and uploading some paperwork.

If you are eligible to defer, DO NOT FORGET TO DO IT ONE YEAR. It can invalidate your ability to do so in future. I had to start paying mine back many, many years before I reached the threshold, and it buggered my credit rating for a while, just because of a life admin oversight. They were early 90s loans though, no idea how later ones work!

Thanks very much everyone. Mine is a later loan so that’s a shame. Thought that might have been a loop hole! Great if you can do it though.