Shropshire grandfather Dave Barnett had a surprise in store when he received a £900 bill for his student loan – despite never taking one out.

Mr Barnett, 71, a retired BT engineer, of Arleston, Telford, said he had completed a course with the Open University nearly 40 years ago, but had never had a loan. He noticed the bill on his latest tax form, saying he had to pay off a £913 loan and that his tax code had been altered.

When Mr Barnett raised the issue with HM Revenue and Customs staff were unable to give him an explanation. Now he has urged others to check their details to make sure they aren’t paying out money they shouldn’t be.

Mr Barnett said: “I have never had a loan for being a student. It’s 1973 the last course I attended with the Open University.

“What worries me is that I spotted it. You have got people who are perhaps older than me and believe these Government departments don’t make mistakes and might not spot it.

“The form came with my new tax code. I looked at it and it said a £913 student loan had to be repaid, that altered my tax code.

“They were going to take it out of my tax, which would be nearly £20 a week. I think it’s another stupid mistake.

“I rang the number quoted on the form. The young man who dealt with me went and made some inquiries and he looked at my tax form and said I had filled it in correctly.

“He said ‘I just don’t know what happened’. He went off to see the manager, then he came back and he said the manager said he couldn’t explain it either.

“He said the computers were down and they would look into it and ring me back. He said he was going to sort it.”

“I have confirmed that my tax form was filled in correctly so how this happened I have no idea and it seems neither does the tax office.”

A spokeswoman for HM Revenue and Customs said: “We are very sorry to hear of the problems your reader has had. We apologise to him for any distress caused by the letter we issued to him in error.

“We can’t comment on individual cases but we are taking immediate steps to look into what happened and will be contacting him shortly to confirm his record has been corrected.”