Student Loans contacting various non related family members about money

Viberduo

The story is this, 6 years ago I started a uni course I cannot remember if I put down my relative or not but left course due to going through a family death and 2 years later did another course elsewhere, the first course was paid through SAAS and the 2nd student finance england and I gave different references for it

Anyway I got called from my parents last week saying the student loans have been ringing them claiming I was overpaid and I would get a large lump sum removed from my benefits and I was breaking the law, they even told my parents confidential data.

I just got contacted today by my cousin saying they have been swamped with letters and calls about my debt describing what it is for, the amount the uni and not even confirming its the correct person.

Since my cousin has moved house a few times since then and also changed numbers they must be annoying them.

I dont even think I put my cousin down for the 2 people to contact thats the thing!

I know they can ask people but what rights do they actually have?

RAS

Well as a starting point if you had 2 years of funding in Scotland you would only be entitled to a maximum of 2 years from the SFE (assuming with both courses were 3 years). They could therefore be chasing you for the fees and loans associated with some of the years when you did your second degree course.

If you failed to tell SFE that you had 2 years of SAAS funding then they take a harsher view.

Have you asked your cousin to send on the letters to you? The chances are it is not actually SFE who are sending them out or contacting your parents but a debt collection agency acting on their behalf.

Whether or not they are allowed to divulge the information that they have to your relative depends whether you gave that relative's name as a contact when you applied for the fees and loans.

Get the letters from your cousin. If it is a debt agency, you still need to know what the SFE are working with so do a Data Protection request for all records relating to your account. That will enable you to work out if the collector is breaching the DPA (by talking to people who you had not indicated as contacts).

If they have you can contact the FOS to complain and the IO.

That will not alter the fact that you probably owe SFE lots of money.

Viberduo

RAS wrote: »

Well as a starting point if you had 2 years of funding in Scotland you would only be entitled to a maximum of 2 years from the SFE (assuming with both courses were 3 years). They could therefore be chasing you for the fees and loans associated with some of the years when you did your second degree course.

If you failed to tell SFE that you had 2 years of SAAS funding then they take a harsher view.

Have you asked your cousin to send on the letters to you? The chances are it is not actually SFE who are sending them out or contacting your parents but a debt collection agency acting on their behalf.

Whether or not they are allowed to divulge the information that they have to your relative depends whether you gave that relative's name as a contact when you applied for the fees and loans.

Get the letters from your cousin. If it is a debt agency, you still need to know what the SFE are working with so do a Data Protection request for all records relating to your account. That will enable you to work out if the collector is breaching the DPA (by talking to people who you had not indicated as contacts).

If they have you can contact the FOS to complain and the IO.

That will not alter the fact that you probably owe SFE lots of money.

Well I had 2 years of funding, once at 18 when I dropped out as wasnt ready and again at 24 but dropped out then due to family member being murdered and getting severe depression, this is also partly the reason I left 2 years later too as wasnt over it.

The issue was that it was down to my error in understanding as I was asked date of final class so put down March of that year but as I was paid till end of June they saw it as overpaid and at previous address I was getting letters stolen so didnt know and for some reason at new address they were getting returned.

I also spoke to student loans last week who said not to worry and they would put it on hold for a month but letters and calls have arrived since then so I assume it is a typical debt collecting department.