Thousands of students forced to pay back overpayments
Money Box
BBC
4.2 • 825 Ratings
🗓️ 21 September 2019
⏱️ 31 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A Money Box investigation has discovered that tens of thousands of university students in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland have been forced to pay back millions of pounds in overpaid maintenance loans. The Department for Education says any money owed due to overpayments by the Student Loans Company, should be taken back from students whilst they're still at university except in exceptional circumstances. This can leave them receiving little or no money for months at a time, with very little notice.
Binary options are a bet on whether the price of a commodity like gold or silver will be higher or lower at a certain time. The answer either 'yes' or 'no' and if you guess right you make money - if you are wrong you lose money. Earlier this year the FCA banned the sale, marketing and distribution of binary options to retail consumers as the potential for loss was so great - not to mention the possibility of fraud. So is there ever such a thing as a genuine binary option? And can you get your money back if you fall foul of a binary option scam?
Presenter: Paul Lewis Reporter: Drew Miller Hyndman Producer: Dan Whitworth Editor: Emma Rippon
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | You're about to listen to a BBC podcast, but this is about something else you might enjoy. |
| 0:05.4 | My name's Katie Lecky and I'm an assistant commissioner for on demand music on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:10.8 | The BBC has an incredible musical heritage and culture and as a music lover, I love being part of that. |
| 0:17.5 | With music on sounds, we offer collections and mixes for everything, from workouts to |
| 0:22.4 | helping you nod off, boogie in your kitchen, or even just a moment of calm. And they're all put |
| 0:28.3 | together by people who know their stuff. So if you want some expertly curated music in your life, |
| 0:35.0 | check out BBC Sounds. |
| 0:41.2 | BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:45.3 | Well, welcome to this podcast of Moneybox from Saturday. |
| 0:50.5 | Just two big stories today, one about students, which will come to in a moment, |
| 1:00.1 | and a global conspiracy that we discovered by talking to a woman who came to us with her own story of having lost 20,000 pounds to these crooks. |
| 1:11.1 | But first, students. Moneybox has discovered that tens of thousands of university students in England, Wales and Northern Ireland have been forced to pay back millions of pounds in overpaid maintenance loans. The Department for Education says any money owed due to overpayments |
| 1:16.8 | by the student loans company should be taken back from students while they're still at university. |
| 1:21.9 | This can leave them getting little or no money for a year or more with very little notice. |
| 1:26.4 | With me as MoneyBotch reporter, Drew Miller-Hinman, who's been looking into this, Drew. |
| 1:30.3 | 25 million pounds. |
| 1:32.5 | That's the figure given to us in a Freedom of Information request made by Moneybox to the SLC. |
| 1:38.2 | That's the student loans company. |
| 1:39.6 | In the last academic year alone, 20,000 students had their payments cut after being overpaid, like 24-year-old Lottie. |
| 1:48.2 | In my first year of university, I was sent a letter which laid out my entitlement. |
| 1:52.9 | And coming from a working class family, I assumed I'd be getting the higher end of the loan. |
| 1:57.7 | So when it came through, I didn't question it. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.