The United Kingdom is looking for about 3,500 Bulgarian citizens who received student loans to study in the UK and subsequently left the country without repaying their debts. This is according to data from the British state-owned Student Loans Company (SLC), cited by the Daily Mail.
A total of 121,000 former students living outside the United Kingdom are being sought for outstanding loans worth a total of over 3.4 billion pounds. The largest number of debtors is those settled in Australia - nearly 15,000 people, followed by the United States with about 7,600 people. About 5,500 debtors are located in Spain and Ireland.
Under the British system, student loan repayments only begin once the graduate starts working and their income exceeds a certain threshold, which, depending on the type of loan, varies between 25,000 and 32,000 pounds per year. This means a monthly income of about 2,420 pounds or more.
According to British authorities, some debtors move to countries with lower incomes and living costs, work in the informal sector or do not declare the full amount of their income, which makes it difficult to collect debts.
Most graduates of British universities have financed their education and living expenses through student loans, with the amount of debt often exceeding 45,000 pounds per person. Before the UK left the European Union, Bulgarian citizens were eligible to apply for such loans, and many took advantage of the opportunity.
The problem with unpaid student loans is deepening, although British institutions claim that they have mechanisms to track the income of debtors even outside the country.
According to research data, only about 20% of those who received student loans manage to repay the full amount of their debts. In some cases, the debts exceed 200,000 pounds. The loans are subject to repayment over a period of up to 40 years, and in certain cases they are written off upon reaching the age of 65.
A similar problem exists in Bulgaria. Data from the Ministry of Education show that since the launch of the state-guaranteed student loan program in 2010, the state has paid out nearly 15.5 million leva on non-performing loans instead of debtors. Of this, about 12.7 million leva are related to defaulting borrowers, and the remaining funds are legally forgiven due to death, permanent disability or birth and adoption of a second child.
The Ministry of Education indicates that the share of problem loans is about 7% of all student loans granted. After the state guarantee is paid out, the receivables are transferred to the National Revenue Agency, which subsequently manages to recover about 40% of the funds to the budget.