Employers to begin garnishing wages to repay student loans

By THE NATION

 

File photo

 

Govt workers to be first affected as new mandatory deductions ordered.

 

 

EMPLOYERS of former students with outstanding loans will face demands starting in June to garnish the wages of their employees for outstanding sums related to the Student Loan Fund.

 

The fund’s manager, Chainarong Kajchapanan, said recently the Comptroller-General’s Department would be the first employer to deduct loan recipients’ salaries for repayments to the fund.

 

“The Comptroller-General’s Department will start doing this in June,” he said. “Then other government agencies will follow suit.” 

There are 170,000 student-loan recipients working in the government sector. 

 

He added that he expected employers in the private sector to begin making such deductions around October. 

“If employers fail to make deductions, they will be held accountable for the debts owed,” he said.

 

Deductions are possible under the Student Loan Fund BE 2560, which came into effect last year. 

 

Between 1996 and 2017, the Student Loan Fund lent Bt560 billion to 5.4 million students across the country.

 

About 3.57 million loan recipients are now required to start repayments. However, just 1.3 million have made regular repayments. 

 “About 2.2 million others have defaulted. Together, they owe us Bt68.8 billion,” Chainarong said. 

 

The Student Loan Fund has already taken legal actions against 1.2 million loan recipients for defaulting, Chainarong said. Of them, 960,000 came forward to negotiate their debts and signed a new contract for repayment. But about 240,000 did respond and the courts delivered guilty verdicts in their absence. 

 

Chainarong said loan recipients who did not earn a regular salary were still expected to come forward. If they failed to do so, the Student Loan Fund would go after their repayments via the Legal Execution Department. 

 

He claimed that many loan recipients had failed to repay monies owed because they lacked financial discipline. 

 

“They do not manage their income and expenses well enough,” he said. 

 

The Student Loan Fund offers more generous conditions than a typical bank loan. Recipients have to start paying back loans two years after their graduation and the interest rate is at just 1 per cent a year. 

 

Chainarong said some loan recipients were prone to repay to lenders that charged a higher interest rate first. 

 

“Some have also told us that they thought they received money from the fund for free. This is not correct,” he said. The fund needs to be repaid so that it had sufficient funds for new students, he added.

 

Chainarong urged loan recipients to repay on time to boost the educational opportunities of others. 

 

The Student Loan Fund is now communicating with various organisations, including the Federation of Thai Industries and the Thai Chamber of Commerce, so that they better understand student loan repayment conditions. 

 

Loan recipients are required to inform their employers within 30 days of their start date that they have borrowed money from the fund. 

 

Repayment records for the fund have improved during the past three years. In 2015, the fund received Bt18 billion from repayments. In 2016, the repayment reached Bt21 billion and last year, the fund received Bt26 billion. 

 

“We believe we will get a higher repayment amount this year,” Chainarong said.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30339162

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-02-19

Yep! On the right track. If take a loan, the loan has to be payed.

That's just awful that these people got their opportunity to study and now are enjoying the fruits. Whilst other young people can't get a loan because there are insufficient funds. 

When are Thais going to understand that after spending loaned money, it must be paid back. 

This will collapse the economy.

 

I think this is a good thing. You have to be held accountable.

 

If everyone is held accountable then this country will go to shit. There's good money to be made out of a collapse.

Edited February 18, 20188 yr by ukrules

"Garnishing" their wages ? ? ? -- . What was that "g" word again? Umm -- try deduct.

3 hours ago, webfact said:

He claimed that many loan recipients had failed to repay monies owed because they lacked financial discipline. 

No sense of fiscal responsibility, or just no ethics? My guess is that most of those non-payers determined before they took the loan that they'd not bother to pay it back.

 

I took out a 25 year term loan from a bank to further my education. I benefited from the extra qualification and repaid the lot gladly.

2 hours ago, Dexlowe said:

"Garnishing" their wages ? ? ? -- . What was that "g" word again? Umm -- try deduct.

Quite so. Garnish: to add or emblish.

 

Or is it a Thai accounting scam, whereby the repayment that should be deducted is going to be added instead?

 

4 hours ago, webfact said:

Some have also told us that they thought they received money from the fund for free.

those young people are starting out their adulthood with a great outoook

 

5 minutes ago, YetAnother said:

4 hours ago, webfact said:

Some have also told us that they thought they received money from the fund for free.

those young people are starting out their adulthood with a great outoook

Yes - very, very sunny!

 

Edited February 19, 20188 yr by bluesofa

4 hours ago, webfact said:

He claimed that many loan recipients had failed to repay monies owed because they lacked financial discipline. 

Probably inherited from their parents.

I only live with my wife and daughter on about 40k a month currently.This is still a lot higher than the average Thai. We own no car, motorbike, we eat out only occasionally. Yet all our Thai neighbours have a car and a pickup, constantly ordering pizza , drinking whiskey outside, etc Basically living a life on triple my income.

As stated, if Thais are forced to repay their loans - the economy will grind to a halt.  

I worked in a Thai university back in the 90's. 99% of the students got the loans. The university specifically targeted students from poorer rural areas. This included loans for tuition plus 4000 / month living expenses. I calculated that at the end of the 4-year course a debt of 400,000 Baht would be normal.

 

All the students thought they would never have to  repay it. (I still believe they won't).

If they were forced to repay it, they believed the repayments would be paltry. (So do I)

And in any case at an interest rate of 1% p.a. they didn't care.

 

And there was the typical corruption through wealth transfer from the Thai taxpayer to connected politicians. Who do you think owns all these private degree mills dishing out useless qualifications? I imagine the majority just went back to the family farm or became a market trader.

 

3 hours ago, Dexlowe said:

"Garnishing" their wages ? ? ? -- . What was that "g" word again? Umm -- try deduct.

3.garnish

Law.

1. to attach (as money due or property belonging to a debtor) bygarnishment; garnishee :
   The court garnished his wages when he refused to pay childsupport.

When 92% of motorists fail to pay their fines for traffic offences and the authorities do nothing about it, I can't see much loot being garnered here.

5 hours ago, webfact said:

“Some have also told us that they thought they received money from the fund for free.

Sounds familiar. 

2 minutes ago, Bluespunk said:

5 hours ago, webfact said:

“Some have also told us that they thought they received money from the fund for free.

Sounds familiar. 

They must have misheard "free" for "tree", as that's where the money grows...

 

32 minutes ago, ratcatcher said:

3.garnish

Law.

1. to attach (as money due or property belonging to a debtor) bygarnishment; garnishee :
   The court garnished his wages when he refused to pay childsupport.

I still think the idea of adding to their wages does seem to have more of an attitude of "Thainess", as in my post( #8) above.

42 minutes ago, Briggsy said:

This included loans for tuition plus 4000 / month living expenses. I calculated that at the end of the 4-year course a debt of 400,000 Baht would be normal.

Just curious.  Which school/faculty costs 26,000 tuition a term?

Thanks.

Terry

41 minutes ago, TerryLH said:

Just curious.  Which school/faculty costs 26,000 tuition a term?

Thanks.

Terry

Back in the 90's this was a bottom-end private university in Bangkok, 60 in a class, degrees in business administration subjects (no equipment, no specialist facilities like labs, no extra costs).

 

Not nowadays. (you have used present tense)

Get folks into debt early, then they will spend the rest of their lives trying to repay the debt, people in debt tend to be obedient?

Fact is now, having  good education is getting to be meaningless, machines are doing the work!

Roll on the cashless society they keep pushing.

3 hours ago, ratcatcher said:

3.garnish

Law.

1. to attach (as money due or property belonging to a debtor) bygarnishment; garnishee :
   The court garnished his wages when he refused to pay childsupport.

Exactly. In South Africa garnishee payments are common as a means of repaying debt. I often wonder why this system is not used here for child support cases, as so many Thai ladies have children which they or their parents have to support alone. Guess who is also expected to pay...

4 hours ago, ratcatcher said:

3.garnish

Law.

1. to attach (as money due or property belonging to a debtor) bygarnishment; garnishee :
   The court garnished his wages when he refused to pay childsupport.

Thank you, oh wise one. The thought that I may have mislead this board fills me with mortal dread and horror. Mistress! Make it 10 lashes tonight.

26 minutes ago, Dexlowe said:

Thank you, oh wise one. The thought that I may have mislead this board fills me with mortal dread and horror. Mistress! Make it 10 lashes tonight.

Always ready to help .

Leather, chains and mask OK with you then? 

15 hours ago, Dexlowe said:

"Garnishing" their wages ? ? ? -- . What was that "g" word again? Umm -- try deduct.

 yea likewise..... I thought a garnish or garnishing was something added to something...image the confusion now in the Thai Government offices as they quickly reach for their dictionaries to determine the meaning of "garnishing"

"....but boss I thought you said garnish the students wages..."

...."No...the only wages that are "garnished" are mine and don't forget it..."

On 19/02/2018 at 8:40 AM, bluesofa said:

Quite so. Garnish: to add or emblish.

 

Or is it a Thai accounting scam, whereby the repayment that should be deducted is going to be added instead?

 

 

https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/if-wages-are-garnished-rights-33050.html

 

Your wages may be garnished if you owe child support, student loans, or back taxes, or a court judgment has been entered against you. A wage garnishment is when a court issues an order requiring your employer to withhold a certain amount of your paycheck and send it directly to the person or institution to whom you owe money, until your debt is paid off. Different garnishment rules apply to different types of debt -- and there are legal limits on how much of your paycheck can be garnished.

Off topic posts and replies have been removed.  This is not about repaying student loans in the US or the UK.