ERUDIO student loans help

BaffledByErudio

Thanks Anna and Pluthero.
Guess I'll have to wait and see just what appears on my payslips and see how its split across the months.
And yes, Anna, had a lack of sympathy from my boss, who sees things from Erudio's side and that it's a loan which must be paid back regardless of the circumstances - even though he had a full grant in his uni days!

I think when it comes to trying to defer I'll have to play it by ear and maybe pray it's all done by the book - with my promise that the wages won't be at that level in subsequent months.
I'll evaluate it nearer to the time.

Mr_McGuffin

BaffledByErudio wrote: »

I bet somewhere in the small print there's some caveat that allows the government to retake control of the debts sold to Erudio.

As I understand it the 1998 amendments to the Education (Student Loans) Act that facilitated sale to the private sector give the Secretary of State (in this case Vince Cable of BIS) the power to buy back loans that have been sold 'in specified circumstances'.

Subsection (4) of the Education (Student Loans) Act 1998 part 1A:

1. After section 1of the Education (Student Loans) Act 1990 there shall be inserted—
1A.—
(l) A relevant lender may assign to any other person all or any of the lender's rights in respect of any public sector student loans.
(2) The Secretary of State may make such arrangements as he thinks fit for the purpose of facilitating, or otherwise in connection with, an assignment under subsection (1) above.
(3) Arrangements under this section may provide for the Secretary of State to make payments of any specified description which—
(a) are payable in such circumstances, and at such times, as may be specified, and
(b) are of such amounts as may be specified in, or determined in accordance with, the arrangements.
(4) Such arrangements may authorise the Secretary of State in specified circumstances-
(a) to take an assignment from the purchaser of all or any of his rights in respect of any loan to which the arrangements relate, or
(b) to direct the purchaser to assign all or any such rights to some other person under subsection (1) above.

This is explained here:

http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1997/jul/21/education-student-loans-bill

The Minister for School Standards (Mr. Stephen Byers): 'Clause 1 also allows the Government to buy back some of the loans that have been sold and assign them to a third party. Our intention in taking this power is to enable the Government to buy back loans that we want to cancel for social policy reasons.'

The sales were explained as a 'transfer of risk' from the public to the private sector. The Government paid subsidies to the 1998 and 1999 purchasers of these loans. It was estimated the costs of these subsidies would be 25-30% above the cost of keeping these loans in the public sector over the lifetime of the portfolio:

http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/written_answers/1999/mar/09/student-loans-1

anna2007

anna2007 wrote: »

There is another option, my least favourite as it means paying money over to these barstewards, but you could delay your deferment application until you have 3 months worth of 'normal' payslips... it would mean making one or two repayments, so it really has to be a last resort!

@ BaffledByErudio Just had a thought - if you were to delay deferment for 1-2 months, you shouldn't have to make any repayments, with the backdating of deferment for up to 3 months?

Obviously depends on Erudio honouring the backdating, but something to think about when the time comes.

dizzybuff

My complaint is still with the fo. I've been passed onto another mediator. My mp contacted erudio and they wouldnt comment on my case as it was with the fo. It's been about five months now and I'm worried that I'm going to be in arrears although erudio havnt contacted me. As ime I spoke they said it was on hold. But I don't believe them full stop.I'm worried. My mp isn't impressed at their lack of competence to calculate anything ie adding a deduction on twice etc. I'm basically worried they're gonna slap a load of arrears on whilst it is with the fca. Should I be paying. My circumstances have changes and I'm earning less although not sorted my benefits out yet. I've asked for an sar and a df but they havnt sent anything. Going through a divorce at present and the costs of that are nothing compared to the worry of erudio.

StudentLoansSuck

fermi wrote: »

If they have not provided correct CCA copies, then arguably they are still in default of your request.

Also a CCA request does not require a full set of statements to be provided.

The "statement of account" required under a CCA request is actually a statement by them showing the state of the account. e.g what is left to pay, how it is made up etc.

For some reason on various forums it has been misconstrued as meaning they have to provide a set of back statements.

I did not know this. My CCA request was sloppy (newbie still learning) and was made I think, under sections 77,78 and 79 of the Act.

The request asked for my Credit Agreement including a full breakdown of the loan account with interest and charges.

When Erudio got back to me they provided me with their own statements for my account starting from 2005, but no CA, which seemed strange to me.

Due to lack of trust and the many mistakes already made, I was unwilling to accept the figures presented without the missing statements.

The misconception in my post to gardenia101 came about because Erudio got back me with: your request under section 77 of the CCA 1974 the following documents are enclosed. Which I listed in post #2394.

Fermi, am I correct in thinking that for the back statements the proper way to have gone about it would have been using an SAR?

Pluthero

dizzybuff wrote: »

My complaint is still with the fo. I've been passed onto another mediator. My mp contacted erudio and they wouldnt comment on my case as it was with the fo. It's been about five months now and I'm worried that I'm going to be in arrears although erudio havnt contacted me. As ime I spoke they said it was on hold. But I don't believe them full stop.I'm worried. My mp isn't impressed at their lack of competence to calculate anything ie adding a deduction on twice etc. I'm basically worried they're gonna slap a load of arrears on whilst it is with the fca. Should I be paying. My circumstances have changes and I'm earning less although not sorted my benefits out yet. I've asked for an sar and a df but they havnt sent anything. Going through a divorce at present and the costs of that are nothing compared to the worry of erudio.

Under FCA rules no arrears should build up as you are in dispute!

I am in arrears according to my annual statement, awaiting a NOSIA from erudio now and final word from the FOS before bringing court action which will end this f..king farce:-)?

fermi

StudentLoansSuck wrote: »

I did not know this. My CCA request was sloppy (newbie still learning) and was made I think, under sections 77,78 and 79 of the Act.

The request asked for my Credit Agreement including a full breakdown of the loan account with interest and charges.

When Erudio got back to me they provided me with their own statements for my account starting from 2005, but no CA, which seemed strange to me.

Due to lack of trust and the many mistakes already made, I was unwilling to accept the figures presented without the missing statements.

The misconception in my post to gardenia101 came about because Erudio got back me with: your request under section 77 of the CCA 1974 the following documents are enclosed. Which I listed in post #2394.

Sometimes creditors or debt collectors do provide more than the strict requirements of s77-79 require. Especially if you use a template that sort of asks for that.

So not surprised you got more.

I received a list of every debt/credit/interest on my loans from SLC, years ago before things were ever sold, which strictly they did not have to do as it wasn't a SAR I requested.

BaffledByErudio

In the last few posts, I've seen a lot of talk about CCAs and Subject Access Requests.
As far as I'm aware, a Subject Access Request should provide the account holder with pretty much all you need to know about said account.
After all, 'you're' the subject, you're requesting 'access' and it's a 'request'.
But in my opinion, Erudio basically ignore Subject Access Requests (or somehow skirt around them).
I made two back in April and May, followed up with letters and calls.
I also included payment. Then - I received a letter acknowledging I'd made the request. Yet I was told over and over again on the phone no such request had been made and it was difficult for Erudio to access this information.
Yet I have a letter that was purely written to acknowledge I made one.
Eventually, a few weeks ago, I received a letter from Erudio. Opened it. 'Further to your request on how you obtained your loan, blah blah blah..' And it's a poor photocopy of one of the forms we'd have filled out back in the 90s to apply for a loan!
Not a document that shows my signature. Nor any signature. No balance, No amount owed. Just a grainy photostat of a form I probably signed in 1995!
This is shoddy as hell. When this firm can seemingly ride roughshod over any of the terms we signed up to, how the bleedin' 'ell is it legally entitled to fob us off with absolutely no accurate account history other than the lump sum SLC told them we owe?
It's ridiculous.
On Thursday, BBC Watchdog had a feature about the current Student Loans Company and irregular loan payments to today's allumni.
I genuinely have untold sympathy to these people, because if they're going to walk away with £60k debts, they're totally shafted if HMG finds a way of linking a private debt firm to PAYE!
I did note, after the programme that Watchdog's twitter account had been sent a few tweets about Erudio. Whether that will result in anything remains to be seen.
Thing is. I'm deferred. It leaves my mind for weeks. Then I have mini freak-outs. 'Sh*t I owe £5k to a debt collector'. Then my rational side kicks in and I think, 'but the loan was from the government and its legally bound that if I'm under the threshold, I don't need to repay yet'.
Then I read things about single mums being shafted because of tax credits and self employed folk shafted for earnings that are expenses and I think 'christ on a bike, they'll do me for overtime'.
Then I think of that statement we'll all be treated 'fairly'. And all is OK. That's also the moment I wake up from the dream I was having where I kicked Vince Cable in the b*llocks and pooed in George Osborne's mouth, and I say 'well, you've both been treated fairly'!

gardenia101

StudentLoansSuck wrote: »

You should receive from Erudio:

• a microfiche copy of your student loan credit agreement
• as some of these are unreadable, you might also receive a reconstructed copy (minus signatures)
• a statement of account provided by SLC going all the way back before 2005 up until Erudio took over the account in March?
• and another statement of account from March onwards provided by Erudio.

However this may take some time as I think they (Erudio) are still gathering all this information from SLC. And I also think, could be wrong, it might have something to do with the way you asked for the information. A CCA request with a fee produced the above results regarding statements and credit agreements.

I did send off £10 & a request for all info under my SAR & specifically asked for copies of my original agreements. So I did expect to receive them, but....

I haven't received - a microfiche copy of my loan agreements (maybe they left this out as they thought I'd be unable to read it). Didn't receive any other format of loan agreements either.

I haven't received - a statement from March onwards.

I have received statements from 2005 onwards, but no explanation of why they are only from 2005 onwards (although I can see why now from other posts on here but I've had no explanation from Erudio other than suggesting I put in a SAR to SLC).

Weirdly my last "statement" shows that they stopped charging me interest at the end of Feb 14, then the account seems to have stopped as interest isn't then charged again until Aug 14 (& no, the missing 5 months interest isn't shown as a combined figure - its about 3 months worth lumped together, so no idea what they've done there). Anyone else have strange interest transactions for similar timescales?

When I say statements though, I've only get computer printouts, not actual paper statements that you'd get from your bank or like the SLC statements. There is no info on what interest rate has been charged on any of them, so I can't check if I'm a victim of their odd calculation methods or not.....so not really a statement then :rotfl:. I've never received a paper statement in any format from Erudio since this whole sorry saga began.

anna2007 wrote: »

A SAR's the way to go if you want everything Erudio has on you.

I made a CCA request to Erudio and received crap in return - no statements of account - only illegible copies of the agreements, along with template agreements which weren't true copies (e.g. the 1990 agreement only had 12 clauses, but the 'true copy' had the usual 16). I've asked for what should have been provided via a FOS complaint, so 5 months past my CCA request, I'm still waiting.

Erudio also confirmed in a letter to me today that they only hold our info for the previous 9 years, this is all that was migrated over from SLC. However, I would have thought it's Erudio who are legally obliged to provide the account statements from loan start date under a CCA request, and not SLC?

I'm still confused as to who if supposed to supply what. I thought that by putting in a SAR then I'd get copies of my agreements, but should I also have put in a CCA?

I agree with Anna that I assume Erudio should be able to supply all the info from when the loans were taken out, rather than having to put in two SARs to Erudio & SLC.

I have written to Erudio again asking where the missing info is, but that letter is still on its way despite being sent signed for 1st class on Wed :mad:

How did some of you know that Erudio would only be supplying statements from 2005 onwards? Did you all get confirmation from Erudio like Anna above? Nothing about it received here.....

I'm hoping that Erudio (or SLC) will be obliged to provide all info they hold in a format that I request (large print) - i.e. if some info is now only stored on fiche then they have a duty to put it into a suitable format rather than just say they can't supply it. Anyone have any ideas?

Really fed up with this now. I won't get my payments back even if Erudio do now manage to -

send me a DAF to complete
& process it properly

as its been well over 3 months, so my payments (that I shouldn't have made) won't be backdated. That's a brilliant business model really - don't provide the mechanism to defer but chase the customer anyway & drag it out so long that you know you'll get to keep some of the money :mad:

Back to see my MP soon, & awaiting responses from FOS & Erudio about missing the 8/52 deadline, & SLC SAR.

I'm gonna need a bigger box file

gardenia101

dizzybuff wrote: »

My complaint is still with the fo. I've been passed onto another mediator. My mp contacted erudio and they wouldnt comment on my case as it was with the fo. It's been about five months now and I'm worried that I'm going to be in arrears although erudio havnt contacted me. As ime I spoke they said it was on hold. But I don't believe them full stop.I'm worried. My mp isn't impressed at their lack of competence to calculate anything ie adding a deduction on twice etc. I'm basically worried they're gonna slap a load of arrears on whilst it is with the fca. Should I be paying. My circumstances have changes and I'm earning less although not sorted my benefits out yet. I've asked for an sar and a df but they havnt sent anything. Going through a divorce at present and the costs of that are nothing compared to the worry of erudio.

Hope the divorce isn't too awful for you Dizzybuff.

I am surprised to hear your MP can't get a comment out of Erudio, but I am not an expert. My previous MP seemed to be able to get answers out of the police & the prison service, so Id have thought Erudio would be easy in comparison.

My MP hasn't yet contacted Erudio, so can't comment but will post the outcome when he does contact them.

Pluthero wrote: »

Under FCA rules no arrears should build up as you are in dispute!

I am in arrears according to my annual statement, awaiting a NOSIA from erudio now and final word from the FOS before bringing court action which will end this f..king farce:-)?

When I queried what happened to my account being frozen during the 8/52 complaint period Erudio replied -

[FONT=Default Sans Serif,Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]We can confirm that whilst your complaint is being investigated you will not recieve any calls from us regarding arrears, however payments will still become due.

Trusting this clarifies the situation.
[/FONT]
I read this to mean they won't hassle me for payments (& indeed they haven't called me but they have sent a NOSIA in standard print, sigh) but that arrears are still accruing on my account. Which is what has happened to me since my account hasn't been frozen at all & I'm now 3/12 in arrears with no reply to my complaint within the 8/52.

I thought this had been discussed pages ago with Fermi, but could be wrong as I can't find the posts now. Like others on here, I'm dreaming about this some nights so could have imagined this discussion :rotfl:

Do you remember discussing if arrears should stop accruing while your in dispute Fermi? Or am I being driven mad by this?

So Dizzybuff, worst case scenario, I would assume you're accumulating arrears, although if you are then Erudio should also have sent you a NOSIA. If you haven't had a NOSIA then who knows? You could have had your account frozen & not be in arrears, so wouldn't get a NOSIA. You could be in arrears & Erudio could have been unable to send you a NOSIA for some reason - sadly we're all being told different things by Erudio so I wouldn't want to rely on them doing their job competently since they keep proving they can't...

StudentLoansSuck wrote: »

I did not know this. My CCA request was sloppy (newbie still learning) and was made I think, under sections 77,78 and 79 of the Act.

The request asked for my Credit Agreement including a full breakdown of the loan account with interest and charges.

When Erudio got back to me they provided me with their own statements for my account starting from 2005, but no CA, which seemed strange to me.

Due to lack of trust and the many mistakes already made, I was unwilling to accept the figures presented without the missing statements.

The misconception in my post to gardenia101 came about because Erudio got back me with: your request under section 77 of the CCA 1974 the following documents are enclosed. Which I listed in post #2394.

Fermi, am I correct in thinking that for the back statements the proper way to have gone about it would have been using an SAR?

@StudentLoansSuck - I think my outstanding balance is about right, but like you I feel that Erudio have behaved so incompetently in my case that I can't trust them to get anything right & want to see what has happened to my account ever since these darn loans were taken out. I want to see every single statement, complete with IR details & payments already made.

This is the letter I sent to Erudio for my SAR - which I thought should/would cover everything

Subject Access Request Erudio Account – XX

I understand that you currently hold details of my personal and financial information within your internal record systems with regard to my three student loan accounts;
93XX, 94XX, 95XX

which were formally dealt with by the Student Loans Company & have since been acquired by ESL.

I would be grateful if you would provide the following for ALL accounts or associated accounts I hold or have held with your organisation, & all in a large print format since I am visually impaired:

1. Full copies of all contracts which you believe exist or have existed between myself and your organisation, including true copies of any documents you hold in support of the same.
2. A complete list of all transactions or statements relating to ALL of my Loan Accounts with your organisation.
3. Copies of all documents which include any of my personal information including copies of any contacts or invoices, emails or computer records containing my personal information, or any records which pertain to this information.
4. Full copies or transcripts of any correspondence in postal, email or any other format which you have entered into with any individual, organization or third party which contains my personal or financial details, or which pertains to me.
5. Where any previous information or records held have been deleted or disposed of, the methods used to do so, including dates, certificates or references confirming details of destruction. Where you are unable to provide such certificates, please provide a declaration, signed by an authorised officer of your company, confirming the dates and methods of destruction of this data.
6. Full hard copy print outs of my personal or financial information, held in a digital, magnetic or any other format which is held in any archives, backups or other storage devices / locations.
7. Underwriting sheet or other such document recording any commission (or other) payment made to an intermediary or packager, and/or payment/commission from the insurer in relation to my account.

Where you have used abbreviations and/or codes, I would request that an accompanying sheet be provided so as to translate these abbreviations and/or codes and their meanings, I also request an accompanying appendix of the documents included and reference to the purpose or meaning to those documents.

I request that you provide all the information requested above, even though you may consider that it falls outside Data Protection.

I enclose a cheque in the sum of £10 to cover your fee.
IF YOU ARE UNABLE TO DEAL WITH THIS REQUEST, YOU SHOULD IMMEDIALTELY FORWARD IT TO THE PERSON WITHIN YOUR ORGANISATION RESPONSIBLE FOR DATA PROTECTION. If you need advice on dealing with this request, the Information Commissioner’s Office can assist you and can be contacted on 0303 123 1113 or at www.ico.org.uk

It may be helpful for you to know that a request for information under the Data Protection Act 1998 should be responded to within 40 days.

If you need any more information from me, please let me know as soon as possible. I look forward to hearing from you in the first instance of receipt of this request.