Student Finance Complaints Process

scarlet-pimpernel

Has anyone had any joy with this process?

I am at my wits end. SF have decided to use a fictitious incorrect set of income figures and nothing I say will make them revert to the accepted figures which were backed up by all the paperwork sent to them and returned.

These figures were originally accepted by our local authority for our elder son, but SF England used the wrong figures for the younger son. We have been trying to sort this out for some time and now they have applied the wrong figures to both.

I tried going through the appeal process but it was referred to complaints as it was not regarded as being an appeal.

I have asked 3 times for this to be referred to a Head of Service but to no avail. They are ignoring this request.

Please, what can I do?

Taiko

Unfortunately, all local authorities have now gone, otherwise I'd have suggested maybe asking them to get involved. I know I did this for one of our students, and the parents thanked me with choccies.

Which LEA?

scarlet-pimpernel

LEA was Bromley. They have been good but SF England seem to ignore the copy of a letter from Bromley I have sent them and are inventing their own figures instead.

melancholly

might be worth writing to your MP. a few people have had success after getting them involved.

bernih

I have 2 daughters at university and neither have received their grants. Semester 2 has now ended. I wrote earlier this week asking for full details of their complaints procedure and said that if they still had not got their money by tomorrow, then we would all write to our MPs. It looks like the MPs letters will be going off tomorrow as they cant even be bothered to acknowledge receipt of my complaint.
Good luck with your offspring.

scarlet-pimpernel

I have already pencilled in our MP's surgery Friday next week as I don't expect it to have been sorted by then.

If only the efficient and approachable local authorities were still dealing with it!

scarlet-pimpernel

It just gets worse. I asked for it to be escalated to a Head of Service and the same day they sent out a revised financial notice for 2011/12 This was previously issued correctly. Now they are applying the fictitious figures to 3 years.

Jo Johnson's surgery had better not be busy next Friday.

Taiko

Going to let your MP try this, but I'll monitor the situation. If needbe, I'll drop a PM and take the case on myself.

scarlet-pimpernel

Thanks Taiko, that is a comfort.
I will keep reporting progress.

abby1234519

I'm still waiting for a reply from their complaints department, then again I have emailed my local MP and my student Union should be phoning them.

scarlet-pimpernel

No time to get to MP's surgery this week so I have emailed him and David Willetts. I wonder how long I should wait for any sort of response? Last time I emailed my MP I got a very quick autoresponse - nothing yet though.

Is this a conspiracy?