Student Finance Nightmare

cakefood

Hi, not sure whether this belongs here but I need some advice!

My dealings with student finance have been nothing short of a nightmare, to put it mildly!

I applied for student finance last April as an Independant Adult seeking income-assessed loan/grant. I sent them 3 original P60s. In July I got a letter asking me to sign for the basic amount and was told on numerous occassions that I would be financially assessed at a later date.

Reluctantly, I did as I was told. I rang sporadically to check the progress of my assessment but it wasn't until September that an advisor finally told me on my account it had been noted that I had "insufficient evidence"--this had been noted a month before, yet I hadn't been contacted in any way shape or form! On her advice I sent off payslips, a letter from my landlord, bank statement showing savings, a letter showing my tax-codes and a covering letter detailing a little bit more about my situation.

Having started university at this point (it had taken a while to gather all of this information together, which I could have done MUCH sooner had they bothered to contact me, instead of letting me think I was going to recieve more then the basic loan!) I was getting increasingly worried as I had only been awarded the basic amount and therefore was not eligible for University bursarys or anything similar to help out with the costs of university. I kept ring up every now and then to check whether they had recieved my information only to be told there was a 6-8 week backlog.

By December I finally recieved a phone call from an assessor at SLC, asking me whether I could remember the figures on my p60s. I told her I couldn't remember the exact figure off the top of my head. She told me that was fine and that she'd have my file sent over, and hopefully have a decision regarding my application later that week. Two weeks later I hadn't heard anything back. I'd just been struck down by the chicken pox, had a deadline and then on top of all that I recieved an email from the advisor who had rang two weeks earlier. She apologised first for not getting back sooner, then said that my file had been empty and had I recieved my p60s back in the post at my previous address? And that if I hadn't I would need to send something similar so she could deal with my claim. Brilliant. I replied I hadn't recieved anything back at either my current or previous addresses and assumed they had been misplaced or lost. Obviously it was over the Christmas period and as such it was quite difficult getting hold of further proof was difficult, so it wasn't till early January that I sent off three p14s, stamped from the tax office.

In February I recieved a letter telling me that I had not met their criteria (apparently someone must earn over £7,500 to be considered an independent adult, which is ridiculous seeing that government benefits for a single person my age don't even meet that figure, nor the amount they give us to live on!). Obviously they've never had to live off Tesco 9p noodles.

Anyway, I had every--and I mean every intention of appealing this decision, and a specialist financial advisor at my university thought I had a good case against them as they seemed to just pull this figure out of their !!!!!!. The only problem was they hadn't sent back any of my evidence back. I rang soon after I got the letter and they told me to expect my evidence to be back around mid-March (almost a full year after I applied). Mid-March came and went. Still no evidence recieved back. So I rang again, and again and again until finally someone said they'd send an email to the relevant department to see whether they could track my evidence down and that I should contact their customer complaints department.

So I did. I sent my complaint on 20th April. They said that my complaint would be dealt with within 10 days. 10 days came and went. I rang them again, and they told me that a response to my complaint had been sent via letter but it was taking them 3 WEEKS just to post it, but they had also sent me back my evidence, which obviously I was pleased about because it meant that I could appeal!

By this point I had finished my course for the year and moved back home to live with my parents until my contract on my new house starts. I went back to halls to find two letters from student finance. The first was a response to my complaint (not much of a response either) and stated that I needed to reply to the letter within 14 days of the date it was written otherwise they'd assume it to be case closed. The letter was dated the 11th May, but hadn't been recieved till June 1st! Ha. Ha. Ha. They wanted me to respond to a letter they had sent me, before they had even managed to send it! I couldn't quite believe it.

Now the reason for me wanting to respond and esculate my complaint was the second letter I recieved. This letter contained 2 pieces of evidence. Out of the 15 pieces of evidence I had sent them, only 2 pieces were returned!

Now obviously I'm quite angry. They've managed to lose/misplace/with hold the majority of my evidence that I needed to send with my appeal, in a letter that needed to be replied to before it was ever received! Ridiculous. I sent them another email complaining about them, and asking for them to do something about finding my evidence, to which I STILL have not recieved a reply.

Now if they'd sent me my evidence back in a timely manner like they should have done, I would have appealed their decision, no question about it, but the situation was getting increasingly stressful and depressing and after much deliberation (begging and pleading on my part) with my parents, we decided it would be easier just to get them assessed. University is stressful enough, without student finance exacerbating it. On top of that, because of how long they were taking, and with still no end in sight I was getting increasingly worried that I needed to apply for Student Finance to continue with my studies and that if I didn't do so it would be this time next year before I recieved anything from them! Luckily (or unluckily) my Dad's income is set to drop 15% this year and it means I'm set to recieve nearly the amount I would have recieved as an Independent Adult anyway--if this hadn't of happened I'm quite sure they would have refused to be assessed.

I have no idea with where to go from here. The main point is that they still have my evidence, or have managed to lose it (how anyone can loose 13 pieces of evidence is beyond me!) and I would like to get it back if at all possible! It has been mentioned that if they have lost it they're in breach of the DPA? If they are, what can I do about it?

The second point is that I feel like I have been almost cornered into getting my parents assessed because of their incompetance. In my head, although it is unlikely, it makes me wonder whether they have withheld my evidence purposefully? Unlikely, but it does make you wonder!

Sometimes I wish I'd have stuck at it and not convinced my parents, but another year of stress like that would have driven me to a break down, I'm sure. The sad thing is, I hardly know any one who hasn't had problems with SLC.

So where do I go from here? Who do you complain to when their own customer complaints system is such a failure?

Any advice is appreciated!

(Sorry this is so long )

Taiko

Posting, as I'll consider taking this case on myself. Just want in as a reminder.