Student Finance England.

JAK1983

I went to university as a mature student in 2010. Because of my age my paperwork apparently went through my LEA. Two years later I received a phone call informing me that I was in default to Student Finance England to the tune of over £8000. This meant that I was no longer entitled to loans for Student Finance England (SFE), could not transfer and complete my course and it has of course obliterated my credit rating.., several stressful and roundabout phone calls letters and arguments later it turns out that something went wrong in transferring my files from the LEA to SFE, and they had lost my application information and supporting documents and as such rather then be sensible and just inform me that they'd made a mistake, and could I co-operate and supply information again. They shoved me in default. so nearly four years on and I've whittled them down by £6000 pounds and am just having to chase nursery information to prove that my daughter did not drop off the face of the earth and was indeed in child care while I was in lectures.

Here is my question ... when I get the final piece of the jigsaw and having put in all this unpaid admin time to make up for their error, and prove they were completely in the wrong. Can I sue the !!!!!!s for wrecking my financial file, having my turned down for bank accounts and preventing me from finishing my degree?

Tixy

What shows on your credit files in relation to the alleged debt?

Are you saying that you did not owe the alleged debt of £8,000? or that it was owed but that it was not yet due for repayment? if the latter was that because you had not finished yet your course?

JAK1983

Sorry I'm just a bit annoyed, let me explain.....
The £8k was in relation the grants I received as a mature student and a parent with two children. However the story as its been explained to me by SFE is that when I submitted my paperwork to apply to these grants it went to my LEA. I was then assessed as being entitled to these grants and they were paid along with my student loan. At some point, these documents were then supposed to be sent to SFE, but they apparently never arrived, and SFE instead of being somewhat intelligent and thinking "
well an assessment officer clearly seen these documents and said this guy was entitled ti these grants otherwise we'd have never paid them in the first place. So obviously our mistake so well have to go the the original assessment",

Instead decided that as they had lost my paperwork they'd reassess me without it and that meant that I'm clearly not entitled to my grants and therefor I owed them £8K.

The major problem here is that the first I heard about this was from debt collectors. Its been a long and hard fight but SFE have not admitted that they were wrong and I was indeed entitled to at least £6K. With the remaining £2k being in relation to my childcare, I'm just waiting on files from when my now 6 year old daughter attended nursery to prove that had indeed been there.

This should clear up the whole mess, and prove that was perfectly entitled to my grants and I never owed a penny. But in the intervening period I was declined my student loan when I tried to resume my degree, and my credit rating was hurt because it showed the £8Ks worth of bad debt,and as you can imagine its reaped havoc with my career plan and life, hence me being upset and wondering, about whether I might be entitled to compensation (and in a bitter turn of irony use that money to pay of my remaining student loan and free me of the whole failed legacy that was my degree).