Help With Student Loans - HERE!

student_advisor

lenga01 wrote: »

hello,

i was wondering if anyone could help me in srting my loan out. I have been in a fda course for the past two years, this year i moved on to the 3rd and final ba year of my course. I have had to apply as a new student this year and it's been hell.

I applied back in May, plenty of time I thought but no, still no loan. I have a 3 year old daughter who has to attend nursery and I have still not recieved a childcare grant, and now I am in serious arrears and have no way of paying for the nursery. I cannot enroll on my course as they said i need the letter from slc to prove i am getting my fees paid. I have spoken to the slc today and they are telling me that they have no idea when my application will be processed and therefore cannot tell me when i will get a date letter, grants, parents learning allowance or anything! I seriously cannot afford to travel to uni, pay bills, eat, get clothes for my daughter, pay the nursery (who have threated to kick my daughter out and make proceedings to get the money back).

My university have told me to pay £500 refundable deposit to enrol but i just dont have that money. I am currently on Income support until my loan comes through, i';ve tried finding work but they are all weekend jobs, which i cant do as i have no one to look after my daughter on weekends. I had sent them my daughter's and my own birth certificates and they cant even tell me if the have got them, but i did send them recorded delivery.

My problem is that they cannot even begin to tell me when i will get a letter through so that i can enrol. I'm sat here in tears now as I've been through so many phone calls, letters and emails an still nothing. I've not had one letter from them letting me know whats going on. I feel like just taking a year out and starting again next year becuase I just cant afford the travel costs of £50 a week, ( I cant get a student oyster card as I'm not enrolled fully yet!).

I don't know what to do from here, I'm totally lost and all they are telling me to do is wait, but I'm getting in to serious money trouble now through no fault of my own.

Have you been to your student union advice centre or student services? We are offering short term loans and underwriting childcare costs for students in your circumstances. Our institution is also being flexible over the collection of fees.

I really think you need to approach your institution for support as they should be able to help you better than SFE.

Poolie

beijing wrote: »

Look on " Say No to 0870" the number for Glasgow is on there. an 0141 number (just realised "Dave" has advised that above!")
I tried it yesterday. I've been repaying mine straight from my earnings. It dawned on me that I should have repaid it by now, given the balance of my last statement. However, money is still being sent to the. Turns out this would continue until April f I hadn't realised. Now I need to send them my pay slips and they will refund any overpay. How pants is that!

It is your responsibility to keep an eye on your loan and when you are due to complete.

SLC do have systems in place to calculate when you are getting near the end so they can stop the payments correctly. Once you have sent copies of your payslips you may see deductions continue for up to 3 months as your employer has up to 42 days to action the stop notification. If this happens you will need to arrange a second refund for the extra repayments.

beijing

Yeah. Typical of the government, though they are soon to be privatised. Keep taking MY money 'til I meekly ask them to cease. Then at some future date I get it back. !!!!!!

beijing

Sorry, but it is rather annoying. Thanks for the rather patronising reply. If I hadn't been keeping an eye on my loan, I wouldn't have known that it should have been repaid, now would I? And no, SLC don't "have systems in place to calculate when you are getting near the end so they can stop the payments correctly" otherwise why would they have told me I would otherwise continue paying until April next year?

Poolie

You are responsible for contacting SLC if you think are going to repay your loan within the next 12 months as they dont know your salary or if you will be repaying the same amount durign the tax year.

They do have a system in place for calculating when your loan is meant to finsih but it does rely on the repayer contacting them. Are you really suggesting SLC go through all the student loans in the system to find the handful which may be getting close to finishing. They have enough on there plates at the moment to concern themselves with.

Have you not been receiving your annual statements? If not I certainly would have been quesitoning where my statements were for a loan I was paying off. You will know how much they are taking from your salary each month so should be able to calculate this yourself. SLC can always provide an update balance as long as you provide them the information over the phone from your payslips.

You have basically being catch in the situation people are each year because the system was poorly designed by the government.

Sylvan

According to the literature my son was given he can apply for a student loan as soon as his UCAS application is in (and they advise doing so as soon as possible). His UCAS deadline was 15th October but we can't find any way of applying for the loan (the only forms available are for the current year)

Lokolo

Sylvan wrote: »

According to the literature my son was given he can apply for a student loan as soon as his UCAS application is in (and they advise doing so as soon as possible). His UCAS deadline was 15th October but we can't find any way of applying for the loan (the only forms available are for the current year)

They were planned to open in October this year but due to problems this summer I suspect they will be delayed until February again (they did this last year).

Just keep an eye out on this site and someone will post the date nearer the time.

Sylvan

Thank you.:D

beijing

Poolie wrote: »

You are responsible for contacting SLC if you think are going to repay your loan within the next 12 months as they dont know your salary or if you will be repaying the same amount durign the tax year.

They do have a system in place for calculating when your loan is meant to finsih but it does rely on the repayer contacting them. Are you really suggesting SLC go through all the student loans in the system to find the handful which may be getting close to finishing. They have enough on there plates at the moment to concern themselves with.

Have you not been receiving your annual statements? If not I certainly would have been quesitoning where my statements were for a loan I was paying off. You will know how much they are taking from your salary each month so should be able to calculate this yourself. SLC can always provide an update balance as long as you provide them the information over the phone from your payslips.

You have basically being catch in the situation people are each year because the system was poorly designed by the government.

Poolie.
Yes I am suggesting SLC do this (find the "Handful"???).
Yes, I have been receiving my annual statements. That's why, in my first post, I said that I thought it should be finished.
Yes I do now how much they take, but only retrospectively as my monthly income varies.
I pay my taxes, I'm paying off a student loan because of a system poorly designed by the government. I'm just amazed that they (The SLC)
would also get more money off me than they deserve until April shows up their ineptitude. I'm not criticizing the people that work there, the person I spoke too was very helpful and jolly.
It just seems wrong.
We are kind of coming to the same conclusion from different angles!?

Poolie

Yeah the system is pants and everybody knows it. If the interest rate was not 0% then you would get the interest bck as well (not much I know) but good to know your not getting shafted.

As I said previously once the request to stop the payments is sent to HMRC your employer ha up to 42 days to action it so you may need to send in the payslips were they have continued to take payment.

The predictor (as it is called) is meant to stop the payments on time but does require information from the repayer.

Hopefully you get it all sorted soon.