Parents of students having loan problems

lemonjelly

Hello. I work in a college, & we have a high volume of mature students. Many of them have children who are in or have been to university, & have gone through the student loans system. These mature students are now in the process of applying to university themselves.
Unfortunately, it appears that when their children applied, and the parents details were put on the student loan application, the parents were all given ART numbers. I don't know why, and they were unaware of this, but hey.
Anyway, these mature students are now trying to apply for student loans, however are finding that, without their knowledge the student loans service decided to register them when their details were included on their children(s) applications.
This is causing a real problem for them in applying for student finance now. Most do not know they are registered, and are unaware of their ART numbers. They cannot re-register as the online system prevents them from doing so. As a result, they are having to manually complete forms, as opposed to the online application process. Calls to the helpdesk are unproductive.

Has anyone else experienced this situation? Anyone have any tips to overcome it? Not sure if it is a glitch in Student Finance Englands system, but will they fix it? And anyone know why parents of students who provide their details for their childs application are given reference numbers and have accounts set up?

Lokolo

Theres nothing wrong with the system. When you sign up you either say a) you are a student, b) you are a parent of a student or c) both. Obviously they have signed up as b) to give evidence for the student for income assessed.

They didn't secretly register them.

Not sure how to get around it though, they may want to phone up student finance direct and state that they were originally supporting an application but now they are becoming a student but obviously cannot re-register because they are already in the system. I suspect they can then find out their details and sort things out. Or they could apply by paper....

MrsManda

As Lokolo said, they were not signed up secretly, they signed up in order to support their children's applications. In order to support the application they had to sign up.
My husband had student loans himself so when it came to supporting my application he was already registered on the system but as that was years ago he didn't know what his details were. He found it relatively easy to get the information when he called Student Finance England on 0845 300 50 90
Alternatively the customer number is on any piece of correspondance the person received when they supported the application. With this you can use the online service to recover the secret answer/password.

lemonjelly

Thanks to both for your replies.
We have tried contacting student finance, however they declined to share details with 1 particular student, as they had changed address.
I guess it is just confusing to us as the potential students affected feel there are difficulties in applying online for student finance. One student has been given new passwords (twice) however these haven't worked.

We are advising students in this position to apply on paper forms. I was interested to see if others had similar experiences or not. I anticipate it may be a more common feature, as I expect student numbers will increase given the difficulty in finding work/need for retraining which will come over the next few years. In addition, many colleges and universities appear to be seeing a rise in numbers of mature students.

Taiko

Also, just from an inside perspective, all the parents are sent letters with their ART ID numbers, passwords and contact centre secret answers when their children apply. It will also be on any additional letters that they are sent, requesting things such as financial evidence or on the sample checks that get carried out.

lemonjelly

Taiko, thanks for this. I'm assuming your employer is an affiliate of the SLC? So at the time of a childs application the parent is sent correspondance with their own ART id on it? May I ask how long this is stored for? & how practical is it to get their password re-set, as it may be several years before the parent applies to university.

Me_Myself_2

Not always as straightforward as you think.

I was a mature student 11-15 yrs ago. I had a loan, but did not apply online at all,

This year when I tried to support my son's application - applying online, I was prevented as I didn't know my ART ID!!!!

I had to phone them several times, before I was sent a letter with the info and I was then able top apply online.

They HAD 'secretly' given me an onlie ID so it does happen!

MM

Lokolo

Me_Myself wrote: »

Not always as straightforward as you think.

I was a mature student 11-15 yrs ago. I had a loan, but did not apply online at all,

This year when I tried to support my son's application - applying online, I was prevented as I didn't know my ART ID!!!!

I had to phone them several times, before I was sent a letter with the info and I was then able top apply online.

They HAD 'secretly' given me an onlie ID so it does happen!

MM

The ART ID isn't a secret online ID!!!!!!

Its just the ID of you. Just like passport number, drivers licence number. Doesn't matter how you sign up, you get given one.

Paper, Online, doesn't matter. Everyone who has applied, supported or anything to do with student finance is given one.

Taiko

Lemonjelly, as much as I'd like to go into a lot more detail about it, I'm not allowed to. I work with an LEA using the shared system provided, but because I've been too helpful in correcting bad advice given by the SLC, I'm not allowed to really go into any depth anymore. There's a (still ongoing) investigation into my conduct, as it's apparently not right to have someone who cares about a student's wellbeing.

Sol00

As Taiko said, these details are posted at the original time of the dependants applying.

Unless SLC have changed their policy, parents can contact the CSO and request for their secret answer to be sent to them after confirming their name, date of birth and address.

Taiko

The reference to the CSO and being in Stirling seems to indicate that the above has some connections as well.