Liam Byrne – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Liam Byrne on 2014-04-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will break down by component elements the increase in the RAB charge from 33 per cent to 45 per cent.

Mr David Willetts

The increase in the RAB charge has been due to:

– macroeconomic effects – earnings growth has been lower than expected since the £21,000 threshold was set making it more generous in real terms than was expected at the time it was set; and

– modelling changes – we have made methodological improvements to our modelling of individual borrower’s earnings over time. We have done this through a new approach that takes greater account of an individual’s past earnings and of Student Loans Company data on actual loan repayments.