Help With Student Loans - HERE!

Savvy_Sue

smithyjules wrote: »

Hi Savvy Sue,

I appreciate your comment and I think I will ask him. I always offer to do these things, thinking/hoping I'll be fine and this time it will be different. We have been married for 5 years and Hubby would happily take it all on but I carry on saying oh no it's fine. So it is my own fault. I will definately go home this evening and lay it all out on the table and get him to share it with me.

Thanks for your reply.

Well, personally I think in marriage you play to your strengths and you work as a partnership. If you're struggling with forms and deadlines and paperwork, he needs to know. If there's a mess, he needs to know. But cliche time, at the end of the day he must have signed his application for student finance, so he's responsible for what was and was not on it. If you didn't fully understand the forms (and there are usually notes to say what evidence should be provided) he's the one who should have checked it all over before it went off.

Oldernotwiser

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

Well, personally I think in marriage you play to your strengths and you work as a partnership. If you're struggling with forms and deadlines and paperwork, he needs to know. If there's a mess, he needs to know. But cliche time, at the end of the day he must have signed his application for student finance, so he's responsible for what was and was not on it. If you didn't fully understand the forms (and there are usually notes to say what evidence should be provided) he's the one who should have checked it all over before it went off.

And he'll be the one who has help available to him through his university's Student Services/Welfare Office.

smithyjules

Thank you, both your points have been taken on board. The children are in bed asleep now, so we are going to A) have a good chat about things and work out where we are and where we need to go from here, and collect up any evidence we can think of to prove our commitments and income.

Has anyone been in a situation where a grant has been removed due to missed forms? I just wondered the chances of them being reinstated once they have everything they need. Sadly they were not particularly helpful on the phone, but then again I guess it is our mess to sort out and not theirs.

Thanks again for the replies.

Taiko

Should be fine once all paperwork is in.

I'd routinely remove peoples grants. You can only send so many letters asking for documents for review before you have to remove it (and by have to, I don't mean you are forced. Can leave grant entitlement in there without if you wanted). I always find people listen more when you stop their funding after being polite about things.

Savvy_Sue

Taiko wrote: »

Should be fine once all paperwork is in.

Except that, it's not clear to me whether the overpayment from last year and removal of some grant this year is because the paperwork wasn't provided and this is a way of getting attention, OR because this year's paperwork indicates that last year's claim was wrong.

Taiko wrote: »

I always find people listen more when you stop their funding after being polite about things.

So true, it can be the only way to get attention!

However, the good thing about student loans is that you don't lose entitlement just for not applying at the right time / meeting deadlines. I remember DS1 tweeting that he'd been wondering where his loan was one year, and blaming Student Loans, until he realised he hadn't put his application in yet ...

smithyjules

Hi Sue and Taiko,

I only work 22 hours per week and we have two children under 5 so I expect the grant has been correct as we estimate my income etc fairly accurately. Fingers crossed anyway!

Taiko, I have managed to find a form to put our financial commitments on but I can't find a form to confirm my actual income and I think they might want one of those too. I had a look on the website and can't find a link to download one. Would you happen to know what the form is called? I seem to remember filling one of them in and sending it off but they can't find it. Getting more confused by the minute lol. Also my rental payments are sometimes made in advance for a few months and sometimes made monthly, should I just write down the monthly amount on the form and then highlight the bigger payments on my statements and explain them? Our council tax bill is similar too.

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply.

Savvy_Sue

I know it's not helpful at this stage, but the first rule of dealing with student finance is KEEP A COPY OF WHAT YOU SEND!

Even if it doesn't get lost, it may be jolly useful the following year!

Mind you, I always asked my boys to look after the copies of what I sent in, which didn't work that well as they'd always deny having any use for the information!

MJBryan1979

Hi folks

Just thought I would post on here to see if anyone can answer this question for me. It's more of a query than a problem.

I left University in 2006 and since then have been paying off my student loan, there has been a couple of occasions when I have had a bonus from work and my payment that month has gone up, not a problem either as the more they take the quicker it's paid.

However I am due to get made redundant on the 31st March and was wondering how this would work, obviously I will recieve a redundancy payment which will be a lump sum and tax free but are the student loan company likely to request some of this as well.

If i'm in a new job then I would have the same attitude as the bonus but if not and I need this money to support my family then it could be.

Has anybody any ideas or experience of this please?

Martin

amiehall

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

I know it's not helpful at this stage, but the first rule of dealing with student finance is KEEP A COPY OF WHAT YOU SEND!

Even if it doesn't get lost, it may be jolly useful the following year!

Mind you, I always asked my boys to look after the copies of what I sent in, which didn't work that well as they'd always deny having any use for the information!

You do know to only send photocopys of documents?? So keep the originals!!

Savvy_Sue

amiehall wrote: »

You do know to only send photocopys of documents?? So keep the originals!!

Well, you send photocopies of personal documents, but the original of their forms while keeping a copy for your own records, if that distinction makes sense!