Help With Student Loans - HERE!

Shenmoo

Hi I hope someone will be able to advise me on the situation I'm in with student finance.

I am under 25, on a 4 year degree course, living with my partner in our own home. He works full time and I work part time though for the past 12 months I've been on a paid fulltime industrial placement as part of my university course. We moved into our home during this year using his savings as he has never been in further education and has been working many years. I have been financially independant since I left school and worked all through my education and paid rent while living at home and never asked for handouts from my Mum and stepdad.

Before we moved I contacted student finance asking if he could support/sponsor my loan so my loan/grant goes off his wages rather than my mum and stepdad. They told me I had to over 25/married/or able to prove indepence. The person on the phone advised me send in all my P60s and documents from solicitors and mortgage companys. I did as advised and sent about 30 pages of various documents. About 5 weeks later I received a letter saying they couldnt process my application further as they required more information from my sponsor-my partner (exact quote of the letter) I rang student finance helpline and was told I needed to set up an account online, link into mine and fill all the information in. Unfortunatly the account wouldn't link to mine so I rang again and was told it was due to the fact I still had my mum and stepdad on my account and that I should send a letter to student finance asking for them to be removed and my partner added with all the correct customer numbers, I did this but after 6 weeks his account was still not linked to mine and no updates were on my account.

I rang student finance and after an hour long conversation I was told the letter I had received saying they needed more information off my partner was sent in error and he couldn't support me despite us living together in our own home. He recommened just filling the forms in for my mum and stepdad and sending them off or going to a registry office and getting married.

Has anyone else had an experience like this? I am apparently not financally indepenedant because I haven't earned over £7500 in 3 years (i have in 1 and 2 were only a little bit shy of this figure) I work very hard for my money and at university. The grants avaliable to me at university are based off household income which they get from student finance. My partners wage and the basic loan will cover our basic bills and I can always get another part time job after my placement ends to top our income but I'm very angry that over multiple phone calls I was told that yeah that's fine if they sent you a letter and then told actually no that's wrong, tough luck. Any advise? Anyone had a partner sponsor them when under 25?

Taiko

Were these years prior to the first year of your course? SFE have said in a previous FOI that the £7500 does not exist, so it's worrying it yet again rears its head.

Shenmoo

Taiko wrote: »

Were these years prior to the first year of your course? SFE have said in a previous FOI that the £7500 does not exist, so it's worrying it yet again rears its head.

No they weren't, my highest incomes have been during university.

Taiko

SFE are correct in this case then. It must be 3 years self supporting prior to the first day of the first academic year of the course, in accordance with Schedule 4 Paragraph 2(1)(k) of The Education (Student Support) Regulations 2011.

Your only option is to marry before the 1st September to become independent.

OldStudent_2

Hi,

Wondered if anyone could help. I'm trying to work out how much I have left of my student loan to pay back. I haven't always been in contact with the student loan company, they have had old addresses.

However I have been paying it back every month since 2006 when I started to earn enough. I feel like I should have paid it back already or should be close to paying back!

Rough calculation from the student loan company tells me I still have another year to go! Do they get things wrong?

Is there an calculator tool that I can roughly work it out using my annual salaries since 2006? My loan was taken out in 99/00. About £9K.

Thanks in advance for any help.

deepintrouble

Hi all,

I'm after some advice for the wife. She had a student loan in 2002 to cover her PGCE course but it was subject to a 100% write off as she teaches a subject that was in high demand (english) and assumed it had all been paid off long ago as she had recieved no communication from SLC since 2005.

All of a sudden SLC are taking payments from her salary for this loan. After a call to SLC it seems they are accusing her of not informing them of "a change of circumstances".

She moved house and job in 2004, the new job was still eligible for the 100% write down and she is still in that job now. She informed SLC of the new address and job in 2004 and has correspondence to her new address to prove this (2004 annual statement).

It seems that SLC have then started sending stuff to her old address despite having sent stuff to her new address. When she didnt reply they froze her account in 2008 and it has been accruing interest ever since. She now owes more than the initial loan amount according to SLC!

The initial term of the loan was 120 months, which is up at the end of next month, however SLC are claiming that she still has to pay for the next several years as the account has been frozen since 2008.

Obviously she is very upset and we are trying to fight it in every way we can, however any help is appreciated.

So far we've asked for

Complaints procedure
Copy of rules governing account suspension
Address for SAR request

Is there anything else I should be asking for?

Also, last october she got a copy of her credit file, her student loan didnt even appear on it, surely if there was money outstanding then it would have affected her credit score?

Isn't there something in debt legislation that says a debt "expires" if the debtor hasn't paid anything or acknowledged the debt in six years? I know its a long shot but any advice recieved would be most helpful.

Thanks in advance......

Dunroamin

deepintrouble wrote: »

Hi all,

I'm after some advice for the wife. She had a student loan in 2002 to cover her PGCE course but it was subject to a 100% write off as she teaches a subject that was in high demand (english) and assumed it had all been paid off long ago as she had recieved no communication from SLC since 2005.

All of a sudden SLC are taking payments from her salary for this loan. After a call to SLC it seems they are accusing her of not informing them of "a change of circumstances".

She moved house and job in 2004, the new job was still eligible for the 100% write down and she is still in that job now. She informed SLC of the new address and job in 2004 and has correspondence to her new address to prove this (2004 annual statement).

It seems that SLC have then started sending stuff to her old address despite having sent stuff to her new address. When she didnt reply they froze her account in 2008 and it has been accruing interest ever since. She now owes more than the initial loan amount according to SLC!

The initial term of the loan was 120 months, which is up at the end of next month, however SLC are claiming that she still has to pay for the next several years as the account has been frozen since 2008.

Obviously she is very upset and we are trying to fight it in every way we can, however any help is appreciated.

So far we've asked for

Complaints procedure
Copy of rules governing account suspension
Address for SAR request

Is there anything else I should be asking for?

Also, last october she got a copy of her credit file, her student loan didnt even appear on it, surely if there was money outstanding then it would have affected her credit score?

Isn't there something in debt legislation that says a debt "expires" if the debtor hasn't paid anything or acknowledged the debt in six years? I know its a long shot but any advice recieved would be most helpful.

Thanks in advance......

See Section 10 in the following,

http://www.direct.gov.uk/prod_consum_dg/groups/dg_digitalassets/@dg/@en/documents/digitalasset/dg_194538.pdf

antonia1

Hi, I'm trying to sort out the student loans for my two sisters and my brother. The assessments have come back from the student finance england and I don't think they are correct.

A: year 4 of 4; maintenance loan £4098; maintenance grant £970

B: year 3 of 4; maintenance loan £4465; maintenance grant £970

C: year 1 of 3; maintenance loan £4943; maintenance grant £1114

All three siblings have the same parents and therefore the same financial information. I understand that students in their final year get less student loan, but that doesn't explain why B and C have different loan and grant amounts. Any ideas anyone?

Savvy_Sue

antonia1 wrote: »

All three siblings have the same parents and therefore the same financial information. I understand that students in their final year get less student loan, but that doesn't explain why B and C have different loan and grant amounts. Any ideas anyone?

It may be right, they change the entitlements every year (or so it seems), and I know mine were always getting different amounts whenever I had two of them as students: one on the 'old' system, one on the 'new' system, and one on the 'new improved' system ...

Taiko

Assessments look right to me. It's all dependant on the year they began their studies.