Student loans fiasco firm set to axe 150 employees

Most will got at the company's sites in Glasgow and Hillington, Renfrewshire, The Student Loans Company said yesterday.

Another 45 posts will be moved from the Hillington offices to SLC's base in Darlington.

A spokeswoman for the SLC said it had started consultation with employees after moving the grant and loan application process online.

The consultation period will take around 90 days.

The firm employs 1,894 people across the UK, including 1,212 in Glasgow and 127 in Hillington.

The Public and Commercial Services union said the announcement was a body blow to staff at the non-profit-making company.

SLC chief executive Ralph Jackson said: "We are sorry that we have to make 150 posts redundant. I want to reassure our customers that these changes will not affect front-line staff and we will continue to make the improvements needed to deliver a better quality of service to them in the future."

He expected most redundancies to be voluntary.

But the Public and Commercial Services is to campaign against the redundancies.

Colin Young, secretary of the PCS union branch which represents SLC staff, said: "This announcement is a body blow to the hard-working staff in the Student Loans Company and to the city of Glasgow, that can ill-afford to lose well-paid, highly- skilled jobs.

"It is an extra kick in the teeth when you realise that 45 of these jobs are being transferred from Glasgow to England at no savings to the taxpayer."

Lynn Henderson, PCS Scottish secretary, said: "Threatening 200 Glasgow staff with the dole is no way to reward the efforts they made to help the Student Loans Company through its difficulties last autumn."

In October last year a BBC freedom of information request to the SLC revealed that 175,358 students were still waiting to receive loans and grants.

First-years had only 351,773 (72 per cent) of the 487,179 applications processed, leaving 135,406 outstanding. There were numerous complaints about delays in processing.

The SLC blamed late applications and technical problems.