Really shocked by letters from SFE. Some advice please?

casualista

Hi Team. I've had a pretty shocking letter and I'd really appreciate to opinion of someone with a bit better knowledge of such things than I.

I am currently coming to the end of my first year as an undergraduate. As a mature student who had already done a HND in 2000, before I even started looking at unis I had a chat with someone at Student Finance England as to eligability as without a student loan I had no chance of going, and they said I wasn't in arrears and I would be fine.

So I sent my application off and in August had my payment schedule back; full tuition fees/full maintenance loan/full maintenanec grant; This letter is the final decision. Whew, great!

All my payments have been made fine and my application for second year seems to be going well too. I have the declaration and year 2 schedule in front of me. same deal as last year including "Assessment; Final."

All my important post goes to my parents house. They rang me earlier to say they had a letter off SFE yesterday (in an identicle format to the one from august. ie; year2009/2010/year one) saying that for the year just going that I am not actually entitled to a single penny for tuition fees but £4828 maintanence loan. (?!) it looks exactly like what I recieved in august just different figures, like they forgot to post it or something.

And then today, another one saying they would like me to pay back a shade off £2000 please because they have overpaid me. What is going on? This could throw my entire studying into question. The letter isn't dated 1st April so I guess its not a joke.

One weird thing is that the customer ref is not my number but it does have my name and address. Its a different format too. Numbers then letters, forwardslash, more numbers and letters like this 1111aaa/1111aa instead of just numbers. Is it a case number?

I'll give them a call but I'm not sure if I should wait till monday and have a chat with student services at my uni first for advice. As if the end of year isn't stressful enough.....

Thanks in advance for any insight.

dmg24

How many years funding have you had previously?

casualista

Hey, I only had one year of support when I did my HND. Thats one of the questions I asked when I initially phoned the SFE. They told me I had 3 years of support left. Which is enough for my course.

lrr_2

Im in Scotland and here I was told -

with HNC - get funding from 1st year
with HND - get funding from 2nd year

hope you get it sorted, good luck!

Taiko

Did you do two years of the HND, but only take funding for one year? If you could clarify, it'd let me help you.

gorgeouslatinrose

I would definatly go along to your university support services today - if this is impossible then ring, but I think you need to speak to someone first. Take all your student finance information they have sent you so they can look at it, and hopefully the support people may be able to speak to them on your behalf. It does sound odd but hopefully with some help they will be able to reconsider. Good luck

casualista

Hi everyone.

Taiko; Thats right. I studied HND for 2 years 1998-2000 and only had , what is called on the website a 'transitional loan', for the first year. It was just spending money not for tuition fees or anything. Sorry for not being clearer. Had a job in the second year.

I a chat the money and welfare advisor today. He looked over my paperwork and said he couldn't see anything that was obviously amiss and he hadn't really come across a situation like mine before. First thing to do, though was Give them a ring.

I spoke a guy who said don't do anything with the repayment just yet and that he would have a look into the notes on the file to try and get me some answers. after about 10 mins on hold the phone went dead I phoned back;

The lady I spoke to said that my account had been reviewed by whoever had dealt with my application for next year. The problem was indeed with my previous study. I mentioned about my initial chat before I applied and the reassurances that it wouldn't affect my new application, how I was told if I hadn't studied at degree level before that was ok and that only having had one years support they said I still had three year entitlement left but all she said was that she couldn't talk about specifics and that she would have to refer me to an assessor at the local authority.

So it looks like I'm waiting for a call from the county assessor before we can resolve anything.

Thanks for posting guys, I'll keep you updated

Lokolo

That honestly screws things up for you.

Even though you only took 1 year of money, you had the opportunity to take 2 years as you studied for 2 years. This is what SLE base your entitlement on.

Taiko might have a way around this but I don't know if you can.

Taiko

I don't, it's spot on the assessment in this case.

It's your attendance on a course that counts, not whether you obtained funding for it. From the perspective of The Student Support Regulations, it's 2 years of previous study.

Entitlement is length of the new course plus one year, minus previous study, so (3 + 1) - 2 = 2 years support, which then have to be allocated from the final year of the course working backwards.

I would gather you informed them that you'd done the HND previously, in which case you could have grounds for a complaint as it was their error that caused this. If you didn't inform them, then you're a bit Heather Mills'd I'm afraid.

casualista

I definitely did tell them. It was on my application form (and it was already filled in on the online application form for next year) so there is written proof. So hopefully I will have a leg to stand on!

That would make sense then, that they saw the mistake while checking out the new application. Looks like I got some dodgy info off both unis and the SLC advisers last year. Even our guy at uni today was under the impression that as I'd had one years support that's all that would be taken off this time around. :-S

And so the maintenance grant is tied to the time period of the support I'm entitled to, and that is why they want that back. This is making depressing sense now.

Of course I will complain, the uni will want their course fees even if SLC will wait till the end of my course for repayment. Will I see any benefit for doing so? I realize they wont let me off not paying it.

So you think the payment schedule they have sent me for next year with the full entitlement inc maintenance loan will be correct? Give me some hope pls...

Thanks

Taiko

Should be full entitlement to year 2. It's really late in the day for SFE to do this. I know with one of our own a similar issue came to light, and we agreed as it was our error we'd allow the student funding.