By Imogen Horton, News Editor
The Education Select Committee has accused the Student Loans Company (SLC) of creating a ‘surveillance society’ after it was found that they used social media to check the eligibility of student loan applications.
Last week Christian Brodie, the SLC’s chair, told the Education Select Committee that the company deemed personal Facebook accounts as a public source of information.
He told MPs: ‘If people have public sources of information about themselves then they must expect that will be looked at.’
‘Social media tends to be public. We have a duty to make sure that the taxpayers’ funds are being properly disbursed, and if there are public sources of information the terms and conditions on which people apply allow us to look at public sources of information.’
Student Loans Company chair repeatedly ignores question on social media surveillance – video https://t.co/eZoR79STrz
— The Guardian (@guardian) 30 October 2018
Chair of the Committee Conservative MP Robert Halfon, refuted this reasoning, calling the actions of the SLC ‘an abuse’ and accusing the company of using ‘sinister, KGB knock-on-the-door tactics' and of 'creating a surveillance society.’
‘I find this really sinister, to be honest, because people don’t always use privacy settings and they might have deeply emotional issues or family trauma, rightly or wrongly.’
During the questioning, Labour MP Ian Mears cited the case of one student who after posting on Facebook a Christmas present they received from their parent, was told that they would have to be means-tested for a loan, as they were ineligible to be deemed as ‘estranged’.
‘We’re talking a £70 Christmas present, for goodness sake, not an ongoing financial commitment. A decision was taken, on the basis of that, to withdraw and review that student’s finance. I just think that’s unbelievable.’
What have we become? From re-assessing/ harassing and cutting benefits of the disabled to spying on poor students... this Student Loans Company scandal is yet another example of the way in which mistrust of citizens has been sewn into our institutions https://t.co/lyBJr5phat
— Faiza Shaheen (@faizashaheen) 2 August 2018
The SLC’s chief executive, Paula Sussex, has admitted that the company’s handling of eligibility testing ‘could have been a lot better, clearly’.
‘We’ve taken away several lessons from very many points in the organisation, and it’s now my job to oversee them being delivered.’
The SLC first came under fire in the summer when it was discovered that the company had used social media to assess the eligibility of students applying for full maintenance loans due to being estranged from their families.
Featured Image: freestocks.org / Unsplash
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