Student Loan Company Problems

wildchild

I've scanned the boards via the search engine but can't find anyone else who's suffering at the hands of the SLC. Son applied in April (the earliest he could) for all the usual loans and a Maintenance Grant. After a couple of months the paperwork (proofs of income) came back together with letters saying he'd got the full loans, but the Maintenance Grant was set at £0. Some mistake we thought, so gave them a ring (and that needs a loan in itself just to pay to get through to these people) and were assured that it was in hand and being processed. We waited and phoned again, still being processed...wait...phone...wait...phone (you get the picture). Phoned again today and, over 4 months on, all they can say is it's being processed - he's off to Uni on 20th (or not, if this Grant doesn't come through). They really don't want poor students, do they, even if they got the highest possible grades! Tell me I'm not alone here. Does anyone have a contact who could move things on?

MrsManda

There are a lot of posts on here which are related to student loan problems, just look at the threads below the one you posted.
Such as HERE
and HERE

wildchild

MrsManda wrote: »

There are a lot of posts on here which are related to student loan problems, just look at the threads below the one you posted.
Such as HERE
and HERE

Thanks MrsManda - I'd searched under about 7 different possibles before giving up and posting!

nad1611

If your childs statment says zero on the maintenance grant portion it probably means they haven't assessed him for that part. There are three parts Tuition fee loan Basic loan(Standard) for Maintenance and Maintenance Grant. Have a look at the form and see what it says in each section.
Is the Tuition fee section saying
amount to be Paid e.g £3225 (the part that you need to pay should read zero)
Then the Maintenance Loan Section
Basic Loan (non income assessed) e.g 4000 (Eventually the loan will be less the grant so your child will be having to pay back less than he would have to otherwise)

Then under Supplementary Grant Section
Maintenance Grant should read £2906

If the first two sections are complete and don't show a zero at all, they have only non income assessed your child. They seem to have done this for several people and have advised that they will eventually income assess people which will be crucial for getting the Bursary if your University offers one.
If any part of the form shows a zero I'll tell you what you need to do.Otherwise just keep trying to get through and if you still get the same response ask for a supervisor if they tell you they are not available ask for the supervisors name and tell them you will expect a phone calll from said person. It's amazing what asking for a name can do.

wildchild

Under Maintenance Loan (I thought it was a grant but then it mentions assessment) it says:
Basic loan (non income assessed) £3564.00
loan subject to income asessment £0.00
assessed contribution to living costs £0.00

They haven't written saying there's a problem or needing any extra information; whenever we phone they just keep saying it's "being assessed" and won't give us a name or department to contact.

There are only the 2 sections, not 3, headed Tuition Fees and Maintenance Loan.

Many thanks for any help you can give us.

nad1611

wildchild wrote: »

Under Maintenance Loan (I thought it was a grant but then it mentions assessment) it says:
Basic loan (non income assessed) £3564.00
loan subject to income asessment £0.00
assessed contribution to living costs £0.00

They haven't written saying there's a problem or needing any extra information; whenever we phone they just keep saying it's "being assessed" and won't give us a name or department to contact.

There are only the 2 sections, not 3, headed Tuition Fees and Maintenance Loan.

Many thanks for any help you can give us.

This means unfortunately they have literally assessed you on an non income based way. Which at present means there is no income assessment which is where the Grant side of it comes in. People can get a Standard Loan no matter what their income, but if they have asked to be income assessed, and are eligible they then are given a grant which makes up part of the whole loan, meaning that they will not have so much to repay it's a grant ie free. So did you ask originally to have income assessed if so they should have asked for evidence if you have sent that have they returned it to you?
Depending on what your answers are you'll have different choices. Hope that helps a bit

wildchild

Thanks - they asked for evidence which was returned yonks ago, but they're still going with the 'still assessing' answer.

wildchild

Now it's in the papers http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/student/article6820793.ece & http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/student/article6831669.ece and Mandelson has been called in (is there anything he's not involved in somewhere?)