Lead Stories

STUDENTS AT the tertiary level who obtain loans from the Students' Loan Bureau (SLB) and flee overseas to escape servicing those liabilities may, in future, be barred from leaving the country.

Currently, there is draft legislation to amend the Students' Loan Fund Act which, among other things, will introduce provisions to place a stop order on delinquent borrowers of the SLB who might be attempting to migrate.

Executive director of the SLB, Lenice Barnett, told members of Parliament's Public Administration and Appropriations Committee yesterday that the relevant ministers had been given copies of the draft amendment.

"They were finalised about four months ago," Barnett informed the committee.

Committee member Ronald Thwaites wants the proposed change to be fast-tracked. "We are very slow in passing social legislation and we need to give it a spur," he said.

"The things that you should not be allowed to escape by going abroad; the student loan is one, clearly, taxes, and your babyfather maintenance."

The delinquency rate among SLB borrowers is at 18.2 per cent, which represents some $1.1 billion in arrears.

Barnett said the SLB was still vigilant in collecting outstanding amounts, with third-party collectors such as bailiffs and lawyers working to recover $658 million of the total arrears.

Of the 35,000 loans at the SLB, 3,400 are in arrears from 30 days to more than three years.

edmond.campbell@gleanerjm.com