finance for someone going through clearing

mhoc

My daughter got into uni through clearing. She could not get through to her LEA on the phone so she did her application for student loans etc on line last week.

This morning she tried to go on-line to check everything out and found that the question was different to the one she filled in. She tried again this morning and again a differnt question. No idea why it is doing this. It then refused to accept her number.

So eventually she managed to get through on the phone to be told that the deadline passed months ago so anyone applying now wont hear anything about their applications for weeks. Her application could take 7 to 10 weeks to go through.

This has come as a bit of a shock, we only started this process three weeks ago and no-one has said to us how long things could take.

In the meantime what is she supposed to live on? Even if she got a part time job next week she would not get paid for four weeks. Is she supposed to manage on her overdraft until money comes through?

Or are we supposed to support her living costs until then?

We have just paid her deposit on her room and next week we pay her first months rent, nearly £600 in total. I am assuming we are paying her rent. Fortuatley we can set up a monthly DD for that from our account. But that means we are using our overdraft to cover everything each month. We only have one wage and out of that we are also paying bills on m-i-ls house until it gets sold (which could be for months on end at this rate)

Any helpful advice would be appreicated

Mary

black-saturn

Looks like your daughter needs a job until she knows the result of the clearing place.

mhoc

Yes, I have managed to get her to register on the student union jobspage and she has done some applications and also rung somewhere who have said to come in Saturday with her CV and she will be interivewed.

So the next bit is to update the CV. She has worked in bars and hotels for over two years, more or less so plenty of experience but she has managed to loose three jobs this year so it will depend how fussy employers are.

But even if she gets a job straight away she still wont get paid for weeks

Mary

lisa_75

The student hardship fund at uni should have a scheme for this. My loan took a few weeks to come through, due to applying late, and I was lent money through the student hardship fund until my loan came through. I had to apply every week and of course had to pay the money back when I got my loan.

Tell her to give her uni a ring. They will have a student finance department who will be able to help as I am sure your daughters situation is very common.

mhoc

Yes, I thought that there might be a hardship fund but there was no mention of it when I rang them this morning to ask about the situation. I suppose if you dont ask or dont know about it you dont get.

Can she ring them now or does she have to wait and apply in person next week during freshers? Do they just give her money for one week and then she has to apply again the next week. Does she have to repay as soon as her loan goes into the bank?

I know this is a pice of string question but roughly how much will they give her? I suppose enough for food and day to day stuff because she is within walking distance from her rooms to college

Mary

juno

Tell the uni, as they can arrange for her rent etc to wait until she gets her loan through. They're usually used to doing that as some people always get loans late, so it shouldn't be a problem.

lisa_75

mhoc wrote:

Yes, I thought that there might be a hardship fund but there was no mention of it when I rang them this morning to ask about the situation. I suppose if you dont ask or dont know about it you dont get.

Can she ring them now or does she have to wait and apply in person next week during freshers? Do they just give her money for one week and then she has to apply again the next week. Does she have to repay as soon as her loan goes into the bank?

I know this is a pice of string question but roughly how much will they give her? I suppose enough for food and day to day stuff because she is within walking distance from her rooms to college

Mary

She will probably have to wait until she enrols. My uni paid me in cash the same day that I applied. I got £100 a week and had to apply weekly until my loan went through. I did not know anything about it until another student mentioned it, so you are right, if you don't know or ask no one tells you.

She will have to repay it within a few weeks of it going into her bank as thats what I did.

mhoc

lisa_75 wrote:

She will probably have to wait until she enrols. My uni paid me in cash the same day that I applied. I got £100 a week and had to apply weekly until my loan went through. I did not know anything about it until another student mentioned it, so you are right, if you don't know or ask no one tells you.

She will have to repay it within a few weeks of it going into her bank as thats what I did.

Thank you, this is most helpful. Was this £100 to cover living and rent? What info did you have to give them? Was it weeks or months before your payment fianlly went through?

I have tried to ring fiance at uni this afternoon twice, guess what I only got the answerphone. I've left a message and will try again tommorow. Everything seems such a struggle.

Mary

kittykate_2

Don't panic. I did that same. Decided to aply to uni through clearing. My loan came about two weeks late, which wasn't bad. Accommodation fees waited unitl it came, they are very understanding. Just don't panic. Uni deals with loads of these issues every year. Everything will be ok. Try to get through to them, if you can't then when your daughter goes to university tell her to go to the student finance place and they'll help her.

Has she got an overdraft? these are interest free and good for paying any deposits etc for accomodation until her loan comes through.

Good luck
Don't panic

KKx

ps: i got an hardship loan one time when I didn't have enough money to last until the loan came through. basically filled out a form with why i needed it and what expenses i needed to cover and they decided how much they would lend me from that.

lisa_75

mhoc wrote:

Thank you, this is most helpful. Was this £100 to cover living and rent? What info did you have to give them? Was it weeks or months before your payment fianlly went through?

I have tried to ring fiance at uni this afternoon twice, guess what I only got the answerphone. I've left a message and will try again tommorow. Everything seems such a struggle.

Mary

The £100 was to cover everything. I just had to show them my enrolment form, some ID and sign a declaration to say I had not received my loan. My loan came through about 3 weeks after I enrolled. Took about 6 weeks from applying to getting the loan.

Student finance may be understaffed until the beginning of term. You may want to try the students union also for advice.

kittykate_2

lisa_75 wrote:

Student finance may be understaffed until the beginning of term. You may want to try the students union also for advice.

Yeah I think some of the people who worked in it when I was at uni were students. Try ringing the SU or just the university in general.