Surely the school would have had the decency to pay the balance at least on loan, but that said that's very foolish of your friend to not to take such an important payment more seriously. Here in Ireland if you don't pay for state exams you still get the results but they are not forwarded to the CAO (Irish UCAS) so I wouldn't particularly panic about not getting GCSE results returned. The Revenue Commission simply deducts the cost of the exams either from your parents or the candidates tax returns - simple! I can't speak for the situation in the UK however.