Great Britain is looking for about 3,500 Bulgarian citizens who received student loans for their studies in the UK and then left the country without providing up-to-date information about their place of residence and income. The data is part of a larger campaign by the British student loan company, which is trying to find a total of 121,000 people around the world with outstanding debts worth more than £3 billion.
According to student consultant Karina Kiryakova
Former students are required to update their address and declare their income after leaving the UK.
“If they do not provide data, they will start searching for them through local authorities and may also charge them a fixed monthly payment, which is several hundred pounds.
Also, the interest will continue to accumulate. The loan will grow“, she warns. According to her, action may also be taken through debt collection agencies or legal proceedings.
Some of those wanted have already received warning letters. Kiryakova explains that most Bulgarian students were covered by the so-called Plan 2, according to which they start repaying between 6 and 9% of their income above a certain threshold.
„If a former student who is currently working in Bulgaria earns 1,500 euros per month, then he must repay 50 euros to the Student Finance Company,
she points out.
The amount of debt for some students reaches six figures. „Most often, students from Bulgaria apply for maximum funding and receive about 25,000 pounds per year. So most often, students from Bulgaria receive exactly around 100,000 in student loans“, says Kiryakova. It urges anyone who has left the UK to provide up-to-date address and income details, as "the amounts they have to repay are not large" and concealing information can lead to significantly higher debts.
What are the consequences of concealing information?
Failing to provide up-to-date details not only results in automatically higher monthly payments, but also in the accumulation of interest, which increases the amount of debt. In some cases, the Student Finance Company may engage debt collection agencies or even take legal action against debtors.