Help With Student Loans - HERE!

Nancy123

Shivster wrote: »

Ok, something must have gone wrong then. Does your mum have a partner living in the same house? If so their income will be taken into consideration. If not, you need to contact your LEA to find out why you have only recieved the basic award, it might ba something like a case of lost paperwork. Your Uni/SU should have advisers that can help you with this too.

Ok thanks for your help, I shall do that, she doesn't have a partner living with her so it could be a mistake.

Thanks again.

slc_sfd_advisor

Hi, I was wondering if I could get some advice.

I am in my second year of a three year degree course and when I applied for student finance for my first year, I decided to not be means tested so I just received the basic maintenance loan I could get. However, for my second year I read what extra things I would be entitled to based on my mum's income such as grants etc. When I filled in my online application I chose to be means tested and they contacted my mum for evidence, which she sent off, and they received. When I received my final letter I got exactly what I got last year, just the basic maintenance loan when based on my mum's income I'm sure I should get the maintenance grant aswell. I really need to sort this out as I can barely afford to live just off the maintenace loan.

Thanks.

If you mother has filled a PFF1 form and send all the required evidence ie p60/wage slips/benifit awards letters/seperation/divorce then the most likely reason for you not having the grant is that the LEA havnt finished processing the documents.

I see this case all the time, if the LEA havnt finished processing the financial details or not received all the required evidence then they put it through as non means tested until they are finished or received the evidence. I adv you to call the SFD helpline we can find out what is pending/outstanding on the account.

slc_sfd_advisor

Hi,

My brother applied for his student loan on 29/06/2007 (as stated on the website) but he still hasn't received this loan! It states on the website "We are waiting for documentary evidence from you", though no one from the SLC lines can give information about what is missing. My parent's have sent off their information and received it back already and my brothers sent off his information and already received it back but its still stuck. Is there anything we can do or do we still just have to wait?

Regards,

Jonaid

Hi there

If this is your brothers first year applying or they are starting another new course then they Passport is required if your brother has sent his birth certificate ten a identidy form must be sent to your LEA. If the application is income assessed it could be the LEA require financial evidence from your parents but the email states "evidence from you" so im guessing it means your brother.

Jonaid

Thanks for replying.

After 45 mins of trying to get through to the Birmingham LEA (I can't believe they have a lines are busy, go away type thing rather then a queue) I found out that they were actually asking for my brother's Birth Cert, which they've received but won't be processing for at least 2 weeks. :S I asked if she was 100% sure that I didn't need to do anything thing else and she said yes...for now. Just gotta sit around now.

babe_ruth_3

My son is in his 3rd year and I just noticed on his student loan statement (that came in Oct) that from Sept 07 the interest rate doubles to 4.80%. Is this new or has it always doubled in the third year?

I am worried that this will escelate out of control for my son who is not able to pay any off yet. I think it will be adding about £35 per month now.

sorry if my question is not posted in right place or has been covered already, Ive not been on here in ages and I havn't got time to trail through all relevant questions.

dearbarbie

Interest doubled for everyone recently - I graduated in 2004 and it's the same for me. To be fair, your student loan is written off after so many years as far as I am aware. As if comes out of my pay automatically, it's something I am never going to worry about. I earn £20kpa, pay about £30/month, owe £16k. I don't count it as debt really and will never pay it off early.

babe_ruth_3

Thanks for your reply dearbarbie. I was actually considering paying off the monthly interest myself so that the loan didn't increase anymore. So you are saying not to bother? Does anyone else have an oppinion on this?
I know next to nowt about this student loan lark. Infact I didn't even know any interest was added until last year.

roxalana

I think you should have a look at Martin's discussion about whether to pay off student loans early. I think this was updated when the interest rates went up.
Sorry not sure how to post a link to the correct place.

I remember reading the article and deciding just to pay what the SLC ask for and not to overpay (My repayments based on my salary are less than the interest charges!), but the article is the best place to look.

rose28454

My daughter has just started an online course in Fashion Marketing at the London College of Fashion. As it is an online course it is classed as part time so she applied for part time funding. When you apply for part time you have to wait 2 weeks from start of course to apply because of high drop out rates. She enrolled at end September and sent of her form a couple of weeks ago. The course fee is £3700 and she has paid £550.00 up front.
She went up on Friday for an assessment and has been diagnosed as severely dyslexic ( at 21!! think the education system has let her down here!) but we were not worried as we were assured she could get a disbability funding to help with this. However she received a letter on Saturday saying that it is not a designated course as far as the LEA is concerned so she will not get any funding even for the dyslexia!!
I spoke to the college who said they were looking into it and had had this problem last year aswell. But my daughter told me one of her fellow students has got full funding from her LEA.
I cant understand this as surely it is better to encourage someone to study part time ( and work part time) as she is than to provide full time funding. Can anyone suggest where we go from here?. She will be desperately upset if she has to give up as she really want to do this. The course administrator also said he thought the fee was high for a part time course

roxalana

Hi Rose,

Those fees do seem abit high to me too - especially as the fees for a full time course are capped at £3,070.

The University of the Arts does seem to have run a number of courses this year that are not designated by the government to qualify for LEA support.

Is there a particular reason why she has chosen to study an online course?

Normally I wouldn't suggest changing courses unless a student has to, but in this case perhaps it would be a good idea to research other Fashion Marketing courses and see if she can transfer (or perhaps even just start a new course next academic year). Those fees are a lot to pay as presumably the fees will be similar next year too, and there is no guarantee it will attract any LEA funding next year (plus the part time funding would not cover fees of that level and she would not qualify for a student loan as that is only available for full time students) Also, perhaps a non-online course might be a better idea in light of her dyslexia?

Hope this helps

P.S. The University of the Arts seems to have the same course but non online delivery, if she is keen to remain at the college of fashion.