By Khrisna Russell

Deputy Chief Reporter

MORE than 300 people with delinquent Educational Loan Authority accounts will face "prosecution" and may have their wages garnished or valuable assets seized among other things, Education Minister Jeffery Lloyd told The Tribune yesterday.

He said while the response to the government’s calls to repay the millions owed to the ELA has been “fantastic,” there still remains hundreds of people who have been unresponsive or are reluctant to settle their debts.

Some $156m is outstanding because many accounts remain delinquent, Mr Lloyd said.

“The response has been fantastic because people now face the possibility of prosecution and obviously nobody wants to be prosecuted,” Mr Lloyd said yesterday.

“However, unfortunately, over 300 will have to be prosecuted because they have been unresponsive or they have been reluctant to respond and that process is ongoing.

“But I am grateful that there are many who took the invitation to bring their accounts up to date to repay their loans or to work out some financial arrangement with the authority as to how they will repay that loan.”

Asked to explain the penalties which may be possible should people face the court over the money owed, Mr Lloyd said: “It is a civil offence. It is a civil action.

“You are obviously going to be found in breach of your contract.

“You will then be required to pay on certain terms as the court may determine. The court may impose other remedies as requested by the applicant that could be seizing personal assets, depending on the amount (or) that could be a garnishing of your wages.

“But most people don’t want to go through that process. Most people want to deal with some means of repaying whatever it is that is outstanding. So we are confident that even those who have been served with writs will somehow fall in line as it were with the ambitious intentions of the authority and just come to an agreement.”

He added: “We are not trying to put people in jail and all that kind of stuff or really make life difficult. But at the same time, it’s the taxpayers and the taxpayers deserve to have their monies repaid.”

Last month, Mr Lloyd revealed that scores of scholarship applicants were set to be turned away by the Ministry of Education in the coming weeks as the government continued its push to cut government expenses.

At the time, he revealed the Minnis administration had hoped to recover a portion of the $156m in delinquent student loans in order to aid its scholarship programmes until the government was in a better financial posture to fund the initiatives.

In June, the South Beach MP, during the 2017-2018 budget debate, warned those owing the ELA to pay up or face “grief.”

The loan programme was established in 2000 to assist persons pursuing tertiary education, either locally or abroad.

However, it was suspended in August 2009 due to its high delinquency rate. When contacted by The Tribune recently for an update on the situation, the South Beach MP indicated his ministry has commenced the dissemination of written requests to the more that 4,600 former loan recipients, requesting some form of repayment.

Similar letters were issued during the Christie administration.

The issue of delinquent student loan payments has been ongoing for some time.

In March 2016, then Minister of Education Jerome Fitzgerald said the ELA was owed $155m in outstanding loan payments for its student loan scheme.

At the time, the Progressive Liberal Party Cabinet minister urged delinquent borrowers to arrange repayment methods or face court action.