Student loans and rental income

[ChazzerChaser]

Does anyone have an experience of this?

I have a pre1998 student loan deferred as income too low. I'm about to start getting rental income. I've just spoken to the student loans company, to ask how I declare the income and they've told me they look at the gross rental income rather than profit. So huge difference (like 7k rather than 1.2k!) which knocks me way into repayment territory and means any money we have for property maintenance gets eaten by student loan repayments. It would be completely unviable. I asked if they do this for self employed people too, so looking at turnover not profit, and I'm not convinced she understood the difference. Is this really true does anyone know?

Nah - I have this. I just write a covering letter setting it all out, enclose bank statements with the money out highlighted showing mortgage payments, copies if the leases with tenants names blacked out and anything else significant like insurance invoice. Not had any problems so far although they generally mess about and manage to collect a month or two of the repayments. As a general aside, I find them really unhelpful and I dread deferment time...

That's a huge relief. It didn't sound right but I don't think she got the tax rather than expenses distinction. Just googling I can see after 1998 loans you don't have to even declare unearned income less that 2k so would seem very odd it would be so different pre 1998. But then they are odd...