student loans

clairey179

Been looking into mine and my OH's student loans. At the moment we both pay out about £120 a month from our pay (PAYE). We've got no quibble with the total amount of the loans (although it's scarily high!), but I think my OH should have been entitled to bursaries rather than loans. I know that due to my families income, I could only get loans, but he had a single parent, sibling at home, parent working full time on minimum wage. Does anyone know how I'd get this looked into? I've tried contacting the SLC, and they've basically said it's not their problem.
If it turns out these loans should've been bursaries,then it would mean he's got about £15k left that wouldn't need to be repaid, which would be a massive saving for us.
We were at university between 2000 and 2004 in Scotland if that makes any difference. Would really appreciate any advice,

cif85

I'm definitely not an expert, but my partner is going through University at the moment and we've recently applied for his finance for next year.

The finance a student gets is made up of both a loan and a maintenance grant - the SLC will award everyone a certain amount of loan (plus a tuition fee loan) and then top it up with income-assessed loans and grants (if applicable...most get nothing in grants). Bursaries can be awarded by the University or other sources to give the student additional funds.

Your OH may have been entitled to some grants due to his family's circumstances, but he will definitely still have loans to pay, whether the normal student loan or a tuition fee loan. I'm not sure whether you can retrospectively assess a student, especially as your OH has obviously finished University and is paying back his loans - best get onto direct.gov.uk or given someone at your LEA a call.

Shelldean

DD is in her first yr at Uni, as we're classed as low income, she gets full maintenance grant (non repayable) and a reduced Loan. She only gets the grant as we declared our income. Otherwise she'd just get full loan. As she gets full grant, she is also entitled to a small busary. This is done automatically. She didn't apply, it just happens.
We did check with the Uni if we needed to do anything and they said no, everyone who is on full grant gets it.
So if your OH didn't include his parents wages in his application I doubt he'd get it.
DD had two options, one w/o parents income included and one with. The website told us what the outcome of both would be, she chose the one where she had less to repay

Also you've the problem that it was so long ago. Probably not a lot you can do now??