Help! SLC still haven't paid my loan! Should I quit college?

Jerica777

Hi folks!

I would really appreciate some help here. I'm currently sitting with around £4 in my bank account until my daughter's child tax credits (around £40) come in tomorrow. :eek: i have been living on £40 a week for around four months now.

I started my course a month late with the assurance from the college that my funding (from SAAS) would be through in a matter of weeks. As I had a little savings from my job, I enrolled on the HNC. I took the relevant information into the Student Finance Officer, set up a personal online account for SAAS and apparently that was that.

Three weeks after enrolment I called SAAS to see how my application was getting on as I could no longer access the personal online account. Apparently I didn't exist on their system.

Another application was processed. This time I recieved a reply with the wrong college and course title, but with the right bank details and a confirmation that I was entitled to the maximum student loan.

I e-mailed and informed SAAS. A reply with the right course and address details was sent to me, but this time I was apparently only entitled to the minimum loan (around £65 per month) to live on and had a different reference number.

Sigh...I sent another e-mail. This time I was given yet another reference number, but was unable to apply for travel expenses as the SLC still hadn't worked out my loan and I had yet another customer ref no.

This has been going on since September and despite threats to go to my MP and the press, nothing is being resolved. It looks as though I have the choice of quitting college three months before the end of the course or being evicted from my flat.

If anyone knows how to deal with these institutions, or has had hassles with them, I would love to know how or if they managed to sort it out.

Sorry about the length of my rant. All replies greatly appreciated

nimbo

i'm assumiong this is higher education?

if you quit at this point you will still have to pay the fees....

is there any way you can stick with it money wise? they will get there in the end (we hope) can you try calling with all of the references until you get hold of someone wha can help. it might take a day of caling and hanging up but maybe worth a go???

amiehall

Have you tried to get in touch with someone at your college? They may have some kind of short term crisis loan you can use to pay your rent/buy food. I really hope you can manage to get by until the money comes through. Maybe ring them up and ask for some kind of interim payment?

melancholly

speak to your uni as well as the SAAS. student services should be able to help with a crisis loan if the SAAS have messed up. the college staff may also be able to help advise how to deal with the SAAS. could you ring up rather than email? get an update on the spot rather than waiting for a late reply? i don't know much about the scottish system, but go to student services/admin help/whatever it may be called asap. they will have loads more experience of these kinds of things. if you are close to eviction, then it's time to get more help and get the college involved if possible.

also, don't make empty threats - try writing to your MP to ask for help!

GothicStirling

SAAS are a joke. They're not fit for purpose.

My sister started Stirling Uni in September, initially she was told she had to apply to SAAS as she filled the residency conditions for Scotland. Then come August, she received a letter saying she didn't fulfill the residency conditions as she had been in college for the first six months, and despite working in Scotland for just shy of 3 years [literally a couple of weeks] she would have to apply through Student Finance England. So cue six weeks to go and having to wait at the back of the queue, she didn't get a penny until the end of October. Thankfully, she receive £2000 from her job when she left to live on.

But that wasn't the end. She received her assessment from SFE -full loan and tuition fees. Great. But no sign of the money. The University had sent notification to to SAAS, but SAAS didn't tell them she wasn't being funded by them. The University were great by the way 'don't worry, well get it sorted for you.'

The annoying part is that she had applied to SAAS the previous year to do a HNC and they awarded her a loan and free tuition. How the ****?

Jerica777

Thanks very much for all the advice and acknowledgements that SAAS and the SLC are indeed a joke. I went back to the phone all day today. the college has had all their funding cut so can't give anyone hardship allowances.

So I called my MP and sent an email to a well known Scottish Sunday newspaper.

It's funny that after waiting for six months to get this resolved, mentioning the press and politicians, appears to resolve issues and now they "promise" I should have my loan within 3-5 days!

Special thanks to Brian Donohoe, MP for my part of Ayrshire, for getting his team straight on to it. SLC called an hour later.

Again, thank you all for your encouraging replies. And for helping me take no more bs from these people

melancholly

you won't be the first person who has suddenly found their loan processed as a result of contacting their MP! sometimes you just need to shout and get help!

hope the money arrives asap.