Help With Student Loans - HERE!

TheFishmonger

Just to clarify the above, she will be leaving her job to study full time, so her sole income will be from student finance. Thanks!

Taiko

She's over 25, and therefore parents income isn't taken into account. She'll get the full loans and grants, providing her course is eligible, and she is deemed eligible.

TheFishmonger

Thank you Taiko, you've just made someone's day

dadooronronrondadooronron

Hello, My sister was telling me about her annoyance that she has ended up paying between £300-£400 to student loans due to some work she did prior to Christmas. This was contracting work and she was paid weekly - so ended up paying in region of £70 per week to student loan via PAYE.

The work then stopped and she is just working part-time. She believes that by the time she is paid at the end of March her total earnings for 2014/15 tax year will be £15000 (or therabouts).

She has been told by friends that she can reclaim the amount paid but has been given conflicting information about how to do this.

She phoned Student Loans and was told she would have to wait until they are informed of her earnings by HMRC. Student loans siad they will send her a statement and that only then could she submit a request to claim money back. When sis asked when approx the statement would be issued she was told it could be September/October time.

Sis then had to ring HMRC about another matter and happened to mention it to them. She was told that once she has her P60 she can contact HMRC and ask for the overpayment to be returned.

She has tried student loans again - but was kept hanging on the phone so long that she gave up.

Any advice please? Also - she thinks similar thing happened the previous year (2013/2014) - only she didnt realise could claim it back. Is it too late to query that year now?

Thanks. I said I would ask for expert advice on here.

JK54

I started a three year BA Hons in 2004 and completed the first two years, paid for all the tuition fees myself, including the third year, but withdrew. Part of the reason I withdrew was struggling to balance uni with working full time to support myself (with mild dyslexia slowing me down). This was because my family refused to consider signing paperwork for a student loan. I was told I could take my parents to court but this seemed ridiculous as they were just concerned about debt (their only loan has been their mortgage and no one else in my family has been to university).

Cut to now and I am interested in teaching and working abroad. I have completed a Cambridge accredited teaching course. I am finding almost every job description or visa requires a degree. OU have said I can use study credit earned towards an 'Open' degree meaning I'd only need to study for a further year or so. I am now unemployed so it seems the perfect timing to study but I couldn't afford to bear the whole cost right now.

Even though I've always paid my way and never borrowed, the student finance response I'm expecting is 'no loan as this isn't the first time you've studied at degree level'.

Has anyone mounted a successful appeal? I'm in this horrible catch-22 and just want to better myself

Savvy_Sue

JK54 wrote: »

Even though I've always paid my way and never borrowed, the student finance response I'm expecting is 'no loan as this isn't the first time you've studied at degree level'.

Has anyone mounted a successful appeal? I'm in this horrible catch-22 and just want to better myself

It's a bit soon to be talking about an appeal if you haven't yet tried. I thought it was the amount of support you'd had rather than the number of degrees you'd studied for, although I could be wrong. Also you could have applied for a non-income assessed loan without your parents signing the paperwork, which would have got you SOME support, so I think you need to do a bit more research before giving up.

PC304

Hi,

Hope this is the right place to post this, hoping someone can help..

I went to uni back in 2009/2010 however only stayed on the course for around 6 weeks. I got paid all my student loans, maintenance etc.

I was aware of this, and have started to pay it back through my wages which, obviosuly I have had no issue with.

Today, I recieve a letter from the SLC stating I owe them nearly £3000 in overpaid Maintenance grants, as I didn't complete the course they are no longer grants and I need to pay them back.

Again I accept this, however they are stating they want payment in full! This is a debt which they have added onto my debt nearly 6 years after I left my course!

They say its because my Uni didn't notify them I'd left, but how come I have been repaying my tuition loans through PAYE since 2012?

I understand I can set up a payment plan, but surely I should have been made aware of this sooner than now?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thank-you
Jordan.

tommysp

I have a very odd situation which may make some of you think...

I am (hopefully) going off to Uni this September, and like everyone else i am applying to Student Finance.

My mother passed away in September 2013, and my father is disabled, on benefits, and i haven't seen him for over a year, and we text once or twice a month. These texts are usually threatening, abusive, and include him threatening to sue me.

I live with my Step Dad - who is my guardian. I rang student finance, explained my situation, and they said i would be eligible for all the loans and all the grants, as i wouldn't have to put my step dads income down (which is considerable).

I got Student Finance to get my application "means tested" for a maintenance grant, and to get it i had to prove i was irreconcilably estranged from both of my parents.

With my mother, it is obvious, but with my dad not so.

According to S-F, because i have seen him once in the past year, i have a relationship with him, and am not estranged from him, so will not be eligible to receive the maintenance grant, which can make a considerable difference.

I am going to appeal this (obviously) as my step dad is not going to help me financially through Uni (which is what S-F expect him to do), so I will only have the basic student loans, and my measly income from working part time, which is 100% not enough to live nowadays.

To appeal, i (apparently) need to prove that my dad's communication with me is what i say it is, being abusive etc. I also need to prove he is financially incompetent. This may be difficult, and i feel that they won't listen anyway.

Any and all thoughts, opinions, advice etc would be HIGHLY appreciated!

silvercar

I'm confused. According to the rules, a parent who you don't live with is ignored as far as means testing is concerned. So your natural father should be ignored for means testing.

If your step Dad became your legal guardian then it makes sense that his income should be included in the means testing, after all if your mother was alive, thier joint income would be included.

Sorry for your loss, it must be very hard to lose a parent so young.

jackieblack

silvercar wrote: »

I'm confused. According to the rules, a parent who you don't live with is ignored as far as means testing is concerned. So your natural father should be ignored for means testing.

Not true. Not unless you can prove total estrangement.

DD's BF is in this position, he has not lived with either parent for over 6 years (parents split when he was a child and he was left with Grandmother when mothers second marriage broke down) but, although he gets no financial support from either parent, because he has infrequent contact with his mother (Christmas, birthdays etc) his student finance is based on her income meaning he only gets the minimum amount, which doesn't even cover his rent