Student finance application mess up!

bestpud

I'm asking this on behalf of my sister.

She is starting uni in Sept (first time in HE) and should receive full help, by my reckoning, as her partner only earns £14k net and they have two dependent children.

However, she has been awarded tuition feels of over £1k less than the actual cost of them and a maintenance loan of £3564.

That didn't seem right to me so I've just logged into her account for her and noticed several errors on her application form!

According to the original application details:

The fees are £2363 and she's applied for full costs, so that is what they have paid; the actual fee is £3500.

She earns £14k and her partner earns nothing.

She is going to be living away from home.

She has no dependents, although she has put her tax credit details down...

She has not been financially independent for the last three years.

I've already told her she is a numpty, but in her defense, she was under pressure to get it in and has had a stressful few weeks!

My question is: how best can she sort this out now? Has anyone made big changes to their form after submitting it?



And can anyone tell me if I am correct with my following assumption, please?

I think she should be entitled to:

Her fees covered by the tuition fee loan - the full £3500...?

The full maintenance grant and smaller maintenance loan

A grant top up from the uni

Parents learning allowance

And possibly adult dependents grant...

Does that seem about right? (She doesn't need childcare)

Thanks in advance

johnswife

hi,
Can't help you but didn't want to read and run. There are a number of posters who can help you on here so keep checking for replies.
It is stressful but I am sure she will get it sorted. Good luck!

podperson

Wow, that's a lot of mistakes in one form She needs to ring Student Finance asap and tell them that she has made these mistakes - they may correct them over the phone or more likely will send her a new form to fill in. From what you've said she should be entitled to her full fees, the maintenance loan looks like it's right but she should get the grant as well and possibly parents learning allowance. She does need to speak to them asap though as they are very slow when sorting things out (am going through something with them now that has been dragging on since Dec!)

Taiko

Do a paper application, and a covering letter. Should sort it.

That's an awful lot of mistakes though. Usually when I see mistakes, it's people saying they get an NHS bursary to do Film Studies.

bestpud

Taiko wrote: »

Do a paper application, and a covering letter. Should sort it.

That's an awful lot of mistakes though. Usually when I see mistakes, it's people saying they get an NHS bursary to do Film Studies.

It's an NHS related course and funding has only been pulled this year, so I thought that's what she had done at first!

She was adamant she'd ticked no to the nhs questions, so I logged in as her and couldn't believe what I was seeing LOL!

Taiko

Wait.

What course are they on exactly?

bestpud

Paramedic Foundation degree at Stafford - cant recall the exact name.

They were told the NHS have pulled funding for it this year.

Taiko

Weird, because the NHS have never funded paramedic courses.

Just double checked the course, and it seems to meet the designation criteria. With paramedic courses, some of them are not designated. I had a case a few years ago where it wasn't, and we had to make a student ineligible. This one does meet the criteria though, so fine in that respect.

Paper application and covering letter is the way forward.

bestpud

Taiko wrote: »

Weird, because the NHS have never funded paramedic courses.

Just double checked the course, and it seems to meet the designation criteria. With paramedic courses, some of them are not designated. I had a case a few years ago where it wasn't, and we had to make a student ineligible. This one does meet the criteria though, so fine in that respect.

Paper application and covering letter is the way forward.

I think it may have been the ambulance service who funded them...

I'm not sure tbh. They only funded the fees and things like clothing as far as I am aware.

Same happened at Worcester, I believe...

Taiko

Was one of the London Unis we found didn't meet the criteria, and was argued best part of two years. I think a lot of i is in the wording tbh.

Voyager2002

Taiko wrote: »

Do a paper application, and a covering letter. Should sort it.

That's an awful lot of mistakes though. Usually when I see mistakes, it's people saying they get an NHS bursary to do Film Studies.

My daughter has a similar problem: she completed a correct application for the loan, but forgot to apply for any of the means-tested support such as the maintenance grant. After several calls to the Student Finance helpline, the message seems to be that she needs to complete a paper application form. However, she can't find the form to download, even with telephone support from Student Finance (she can't understand the Glasgow accent), and when I had a look using Google I found the message:

Download Student Grant Application Form - preparing 2011/12 information

We are in the process of preparing the information for the 2011-12 grant scheme, please check back later.

(At http://www.studentfinance.ie/mp7658/download-maintenance-grant-application-form/index.html)

So what is the solution?