Direct, procedural guide to formally telling Student Loans Company you're leaving the UK, switching into the overseas system, and avoiding automatic arrears.
The UK student loan system is binary: either you are a UK-based borrower on PAYE, or you are an overseas borrower on the Overseas Income Assessment system. There is no legitimate third category called “I just left and didn’t tell anyone”.
If you fail to notify Student Loans Company (SLC) before you leave, the system does not pause politely. It assumes you are ignoring them, applies default income bands, and charges fixed monthly repayments as if you earn a set overseas income, regardless of your actual situation. That accrues as arrears and can snowball for years.
The fix is straightforward: you tell them, on time, with enough evidence that they can set a correct overseas repayment level. Once that pipeline is built, your loan recovers quietly in the background while you focus on the move, not constant firefighting.
Do not wait until you have already left. SLC needs lead time to switch your account from UK PAYE to overseas assessment before payroll breaks and correspondence starts bouncing.
The rule is simple: if your main home and income are shifting outside the UK for any meaningful period, you notify. Treat it as part of emigration admin, not an optional courtesy.
You are doing three things: updating your contact details, formally declaring that you will be overseas, and starting the Overseas Income Assessment pipeline. That's it. Everything else hangs off those three moves.
Confirm your current email and mobile number are ones you actually use and will keep while abroad. Do not rely on a university email or dead inbox.
Use an address that will remain stable and monitored: a parent, trusted relative, or clearly under your control. Do not use a random flat-share you are leaving in 3 weeks.
You tell them your planned departure date, destination country, and whether you have a job lined up. This can be done by phone and in writing. Written contact gives you an audit trail.
Ask specifically for the overseas assessment form and instructions for your destination country. They will either post it, provide a download, or direct you to complete it online.
You fill in expected income, upload or send supporting documents, and sign to confirm that you will update them when your circumstances change.
After processing, your account should show you as an overseas borrower with a set repayment level in your new currency band. You verify this online or by asking for written confirmation.
Do not assume "I posted it" equals "they processed it". Until you have clear confirmation that your status is recorded as overseas with an agreed repayment level, treat the process as incomplete.
The OIA form is the mechanism SLC uses to set your repayment level while you are outside UK PAYE. It is an exercise in income evidence and forward planning, not a negotiation about whether you owe the loan.
The form is not a trick. Understate income and you risk misrepresentation; overstate income and you overpay. The correct answer is your actual income, evidenced properly, and updated when it changes.
SLC is not interested in vague stories. They want documents that can be checked: contracts, payslips, tax returns, and bank statements. You either have them or you don't. Build the evidence stack early.
Many people move first and hunt for work later. SLC accommodates that, but only if you tell them explicitly and provide some evidence that your income is currently zero or low.
Do not invent an income level “to be safe”. That just tells SLC to charge you repayments you cannot afford. State the real position, then update them once you secure work.
If you are contracting, freelancing, running your own business, or earning from multiple countries, your life is more complex. SLC still reduces it to one number: your annual income. You have to do the simplification for them.
While you're in the UK, SLC piggybacks HMRC data: payroll sends student loan deductions, HMRC hands that data over, and your account updates. When you leave, that pipeline breaks; you can't pretend PAYE still exists.
Treat the last UK payslip as the cut-off point for “automatic” loan collection. From that moment, you are responsible for building the replacement mechanism via the overseas assessment process.
Most overseas arrears are not the result of complex law. They are basic administrative laziness: ignoring letters, not updating contact details, and refusing to fill in a short form. Fix the behaviour and the problem stops.
The overseas system is blunt but predictable. If you behave predictably – on-time forms, clean evidence, address and email kept current – it stays boring. That is the goal.
You do not send forms into a black hole and hope. You run a basic control system: send, log, check, chase. That is how you prevent years of "nobody processed it" turning into thousands of pounds of assumed repayments.
Escalation means phoning, clearly referencing dates and documents sent, and asking for a written correction and updated statement, not shouting vaguely about "the system".
You do not need perfect wording. You need clarity: who you are, when you are leaving, what you are asking for, and which documents you are enclosing.
Subject: Notification of Move Overseas and Request for Overseas Income Assessment Customer Reference: [your SLC reference] Name: [full name] Date of Birth: [dd/mm/yyyy] I am writing to inform you that I will be leaving the UK to live overseas. Destination country: [country] Date of departure from UK: [dd/mm/yyyy] Forwarding postal address: [address you will use] Email and mobile to use for all contact: [email], [phone] I will no longer be employed under UK PAYE from [date of final UK employment / final payslip]. Please: 1) Record my status as moving overseas, and 2) Send me the Overseas Income Assessment form and guidance for my destination country (or confirm how to complete this online). I will provide income evidence as soon as the form and instructions are issued. Regards, [full name]
Subject: Follow-Up – Overseas Income Assessment Not Yet Processed Customer Reference: [your SLC reference] Previous correspondence dates: [list emails/letters] I previously notified you on [dates] that I had moved / will move overseas and requested the Overseas Income Assessment. I have not yet received confirmation that: - My account is recorded as overseas, and - An assessment has been completed based on the income evidence I supplied. Please confirm in writing: 1) My current status (UK or overseas), and 2) The monthly repayment amount and assessment period now applied to my account. If any information is missing from my side, state precisely what is required. Regards, [full name]
“I'm only going for a year, do I still need to tell them?”
Yes, if you are working or living abroad for more than a short trip and not on UK PAYE, you treat it as overseas and notify.
“If I don't tell them, it just pauses, right?”
No. They push you into default overseas repayments based on assumed income and mark arrears when you don't pay.
“My partner will pay my expenses; I have no income.”
Then your income is zero. You state that, support it with bank and visa evidence, and your overseas assessment should reflect that.
“I work for a UK company but live abroad. Am I overseas?”
For SLC, your residence matters more than your employer's location. If your main home is abroad and you are not on UK PAYE, you are overseas.
“Can I just switch back to UK status when I visit family for a few weeks?”
No. You change status when your main home and ongoing income base move, not for short visits.
Build the correct channel on purpose once, keep it updated annually, and stop treating compliance as a yearly emergency.
UK Education Policy Specialist
With over 15 years of experience in UK education policy and student finance, Dr. Sharma founded Student Loan Calculator UK to help students navigate the complex world of student loans.