Can I complain about Student Finance? Who to?

easytiger-gb

I have had the most abysmal experience with Student Finance and I want to complain, who do I complain to? I've contacted their complaint department but might as well bang my head against a brick wall. Is there an ombudsman I can seek advice from?

Lokolo

Have you looked at the complaints page?

http://www.slc.co.uk/complaints/

It's all there.

Taiko

Why are you complaining, out of interest?

easytiger-gb

Taiko wrote: »

Why are you complaining, out of interest?

Oh it's such a long story I hardly know where to start. Firstly, I completed the first year of a degree way back in 2000, when I left school, my finance was sorted by my local authority then. I dropped out after 1 year as my mum was terminally ill, and after she died I was carer for my younger brother. A long time later I decided to go back to uni. I started a new course, applied to the SLC as it was then, and was told that I had to apply back to my local authority (by this time I had moved and my local authority wasn't even the same as before). After passing my forms backwards and forwards until well into my course, I was told I wasn't eligible for finance for the first year as my extentuating circumstances for dropping out weren't good enough. I appealed and was given the minimum grant and had my student fees paid. I also applied seperately, and was given adult dependent's grant. This year I am in my second year and I have decided to change my child care payments from working families tax credits (as I still run my own business) to student loans (they pay an extra 5% of it) and was told that everything was fine and to expect payment on a certain date. That date came and went. After I rang them I was told to wait 6 weeks so they could sort it out. After six weeks I was told that I needed to send in a statement from WFTC saying that I no longer recieved payments from them. I sent in that form which had the date and a declaration from WFTC that I no longer recieved payments from them, but the statement is for the financial year so obv it has the payments from april - august on it. WFTC said that this had to read £0. Obviously no such form exists. I was sent around the houses and one day spent 12 solid hours on the phone being passed from agent to agent without any resolution. I was told then to send in more information and wait another six weeks for an answer. After six weeks they sent me a notification saying that they needed some more information about my bills etc (which was fair enough but why didn't they say that in the first place). I sent that in, but another six weeks later I was still waiting. By this time (christmas) I was paying my childminder 1/2 of my bill out of my own, student funded, pocket, and she was kind enough to let me run the rest up, but my bill was still £700 owing. My phone bill for Nov/Dec was £250, most of it to SFE. In December they finally sorted the childcare out and paid into my account and I was able to settle my bill. They then sent me a notification saying that they had recieved all the info they needed and my claim wouldn't change unless my circumstances changed. The following week (a couple of days after Xmas) I recieved a letter saying that I hadn't declared my council tax properly (I had sent them the council tax bill, and my bank statments showing the same amount taken out in cheques.) Today I have recieved a notification saying that I am not entitled to adult dependents grant for last year and they have removed £400 from my bank account to pay it back. I am at my wits end and don't know where to turn.


I know

TL:DR

lol.

LeonBurton

I complained to them as nobody seemed to know what was happening with my application. However, nobody even acknowledged it and I had no response.

Another friend complained and received a little compensation for his troubles, but I think this is very rare?

You need to complain to SLC themselves, the details are on their website.

easytiger-gb

sorry if I didn't make myself clear, I have already gone through the SLC complaints procedure but without resolution (they basically said "there's nothing we can do, our hands are tied, it's the system." COMPUTER SAYS NO!

amiehall

Can I suggest trying your MP?

MrsManda

easytiger-gb wrote: »

sorry if I didn't make myself clear, I have already gone through the SLC complaints procedure but without resolution (they basically said "there's nothing we can do, our hands are tied, it's the system." COMPUTER SAYS NO!

Have you gone through the whole process?

What we will do

We will acknowledge your complaint within 5 working days of receipt. Our Complaints Resolution Unit will then investigate and aim to respond to you within 10 working days of this acknowledgement. If we are experiencing any delay we will keep you informed.

We aim to resolve all complaints in our response but if you are unhappy with the reply you receive, you can ask for it to be escalated to a Head of Service. Please confirm why you remain dissatisfied to help us resolve any outstanding issues you may have.

If you are not satisfied with the response form the Head of Service and your complaint remains unresolved you can ask for it to be escalated to an independent third party.

Independent reviews are carried out by one of the Independent Assessors appointed by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
If you have a mortgage style loan, usually pre-1998 then you can contact the Financial Ombudsman Service at:

• www.financialombudsman.org.uk/consumer/complaints.htm

If you applied for finance through a Welsh Local Authority then you may be able to refer your complaint to the Welsh Ombudsman at:

• http://www.ombudsman-wales.org.uk

http://www.slc.co.uk/contact%20us/customer_assistance.html

P3dro

As a former employee of a company that dealt with SLC/SFE calls, the SFE system is abysmal. The Darlington Processing dept. are utterly incompetent and i falls on the (minumum wage) agents to deal with the !!!!, despite having little to no clue what's going on in some cases as no information is left by the processors. (Makes me glad I deal with SAAS)

If you complain nothing will happen. You may not get a response. Only thing I would say is to try your MP. Probably still won't change anything, but I have had MP's call on customers behalfs. (In which case we passed the call to a manager who told them that DPA meant we couldn't discuss it.)

If you want to get to the bottom of it ask to be put through to the Darlington Office (Lie and say you've been put through before if they say its not possible) The staff there are more knowledgeable and more importantly have the power to actually change things on the account!

As I finished their in December its possible you even spoke to myself at one point (Very possible, I spoke to a woman, her son and then her again in one night, three different randomly assigned calls....) The person on the end of the phone generally wants to help you its just that its pretty much impossible for them to do anything, bar send a task to Darlington which may or may not be actioned (pretty much why I left). In your case the problems seem to be a) little/no interaction from LEAs (your council) to SFE. b) the Special Support Team (who deal with Child Care) are uncontactable by anyone other than the Darlington office. They have no tel no or email even for agents to speak to them.

With regards to the cash they want back normally this can be sorted by..... Sending in more docs.

What is the current status of the app. What have you received, what do you think your entitled to, and what are they wanting back?

divastrop

Can they really take money out of your bank account?? What if you incur charges and it turns out it was their mistake in the first place?

easytiger-gb

Thank you Mrs Manda. I have had a response from the department and have had some correspondence between them and I but really to no avail; basically their response was "this is the way the system works" I have asked for my complaint to be escalated but as yet have recieved no communication about this. I agree with p3dro about sending in the documents, I mean if I didn't send them in the right stuff in the first place that's fair enough. But I do object to being told that I had sent in everything they needed and then them changing their mind. I have this year recieved basic maintinence grant and childcare payments, but some of the money that they say I owe them from last year will be deducted from this (around £1,200 after the £400 already taken is deducted.) If I did speak to you, I'm sorry if I shouted at you! I have kept a list of everyone I spoke to and when.