Student Finance Appeal Advice!

MrUniveristy

Hello all,

I am having some trouble proving my financial independence from my parents. I’m 20 & have been independent since I was 16. I submitted my HMRC summary of earnings to them for the last 4 tax years including payslips to date and job seekers allowance documents.

I phoned up last night to check the status of my application; I was informed it has been declined as I did not meet the ‘threshold of £7500’ for tax year ending 5 April 2012. The lady I spoke to said this is set-in-stone and there is no way I can get around this. I terminated the call and started putting an appeal together to prove my independence.

Since 16 I moved out into my girlfriend’s council house that her mother had subsidised, I was working at the time and contributed rental payments, bills and food etc...

This is my earnings to date:
Tax year ending 5 April 2011 - £3500
Tax year ending 5 April 2012 - £6310
Tax year ending 5 April 2013 - £11000
Tax year ending 5 April 2014 – Currently £16000

I have submitted my appeal on the basis that in tax year ending 5 April 2012 I worked for a month for a well known tour operator based overseas and I received a remuneration package which amounts to £1300 per month which constitutes a monthly housing benefit of £700 (including electric, gas and water) deducted from my gross monthly pay. I forgot to mention this in my previous evidence as I didn’t think it was relevant at the time.

I enclosed my contract of employment that states this remuneration package also.

I need your opinions on this as I am willing to take this all the way to stage 3 appeal to get my grants.

Regards,

devildog

I don't believe it is 'set in stone' due to what I have read on previous threads here, but I don't know enough to offer any advice.
If Taiko is around he will be the one with the knowledge.
Good luck if you appeal

essentials2x7w

Hi there,

I've literally just had to go through the same problem as you. It's taken 7 months to sort but i've finally been approved the full loan/grant!

I'm 23, independent and have been living away from home since 17. I tried to provide tax year info from April 09 - April 12. The latter two years my earnings were £11,000ish and approved ok. 09/10 was only £6750 and they wouldn't approve it.

I kept being told this 'You have to earn over £7,500 each year' b***ocks which is just that! The people in the call centres have their lovely little scripts in front of them and that's all they know! They are not the assessors and don't know the ins and outs.

For 09/10 I was in receipt of housing benefit & income support for the most part. I sent them a 5-page covering letter explaining why I was on benefits for that year, and why if the government didn't deem you needed over £7,500 to live on - SFE shouldn't be making up their own rules. I also provided details of how I was able to 'run my own household' on the amount I received and all the evidence to support this.

If you've already put in an appeal that's fine. It might be worth you putting in a separate complaint and/or submit all the info/evidence again with a detailed covering letter to the normal Darlington postal address with 'FAO Resolve Team' written on it. I found my normal evidence submission was dealt with quicker than the complaints department.

I honestly think you'll be fine. The assessors don't look at everything in black & white and will take into account your individual circumstances - it might just take a few weeks/months to be looked at!

Hope this helps

Taiko

As per your previous thread on the contract where you were advised to send this evidence in, please let SFE make the assessment on it. If that comes back negative, then post back on an existing thread as it'll make it easier to see the back story, rather than having to repeat things again.