Dear Editor
Politicians should admit that they are just like the BBC Radio 4 programme I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue. Foreign students are securing student loans of up to £13,000 a year then dropping out with no intention of completing their studies or repaying the money. Questions originally raised by Rupert Lowe MP reveal a multi-million-pound fraud potentially linked to organised crime.
His questioning to ministers uncovered that ‘cases of misrepresentation in student finance applications’ relating to migrant worker fraud has soared from six in 20/21 to 301 in 24/25. These criminals sign up foreign people to pretend to be students and when they get the loan they split the money. A nice little earner. We are talking about potential big numbers as 262,000 foreign students are receiving loans with 83,789 of them coming from Romania, a country Mr Lowe highlighted. About 7,500 Slovakians are on the student loan bandwagon. When this data was released in Parliament to Mr Lowe he said: ‘Why on earth are we allowing foreigners to claim student loans?’
Bridget Phillipson, the Education Secretary, has pledged to crack down on abuse and tighten rules to make the colleges subject to Office for Students regulation or face being stripped of their access to loan funding from 2028-29. I am not holding my breath.
Clark Cross
West Lothian
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