ERUDIO student loans help

dizzybuff

In two minds to put it to her. She's an arrogant thing.

dizzybuff

okay doing my daf which bits should I cross out...

anna2007

RoaringTwenties wrote: »

Hello,

I'm hoping people here might be able to help me with my Erudio deferment situation! I posted on the Loans section & a kind person re-directed me over here.

Hi RoaringTwenties, welcome to the thread

I'm in a similar situation financially to you - you can find details of how I went about my deferment last year, way back on page 39, posts #772 and #776, hopefully some of it will be helpful to you.

Although I completed the DAF last year (with FPN removed, bits scored through, extra statement re not agreeing to new terms, etc), if the CRA issue hasn't been resolved before my next deferment's due, I'll be applying by letter this time around and taking Erudio to court if they don't defer me, as I want a court decision on whether Erudio can report my deferred loans. We're both on the pre-98 loan agreement, where the clause on disclosure of information is more ambiguous than the updated post-98 agreement - you can see a copy of both here - https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4945901

AReeves, who's posted below you about court action, is a lawyer who's been helping out on the forums, hopefully he may get a court ruling on whether there is an unfair relationship because of the difference in the disclosure clauses, and also whether Erudio can make deferment conditional on using their DAF. There has been one or two cases on here where people have been deferred without completing the DAF, but as things stand at the moment, you have to be prepared for a long, drawn out fight to get deferred.

Your Child Benefit should be declared. Regarding your son's DLA, disability-related benefits should not be included as income (besides it's your son's benefit and not yours!), and even states this in Erudio's deferment guide, BUT Erudio have been messing people around with these benefits and including them as income. I'd be tempted to not give them details, but if you're well below the threshold it might be better to include it, but make it clear that it's your son's DLA and not yours? Maybe someone who's been through it can advise you better on that though. There's a copy of the SLC's deferment processing manual here, which shows what is and isn't classed as income by them, so might be helpful:

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/assessment_of_deferment_applicat

Re your ISA, you don't have to declare your savings, but you should declare the interest as that's income - they ask for the gross monthly amount (assuming it's the same DAF as last year and not the revised one), and not the annual amount, so remember to enter the monthly equivalent! For your BTL, as you don't earn any income from the investment, I would say Erudio don't need to know.

On the loan write-off, I hadn't even considered how it might be shown IF Erudio reported it to CRA's, but makes me wonder if that's another trick Erudio might try when the time comes. You might have seen it mentioned that Erudio are claiming they will report our deferred loans to the CRA's as being on a "payment holiday", which is completely inaccurate as they're legally deferred, so maybe they'll try something similar with the write-offs? However, Erudio have only threatened the CRA reporting, and it's coming up to a year since they first did that. It does look like nothing more than an empty threat, and I think there would be some fairly serious ramifications if they did go ahead and report deferred loans, but you never know with Erudio!

Hope this helps and good luck with your deferment

Edit: Re the letter on financial support from your partner - I read on the forums last year that Erudio weren't accepting this, they wanted an actual amount of financial support (even if you didn't receive an allowance as such from your partner). If you wanted to stick with the letter, rather than all the faffing about in working out a figure for financial support, there's a great letter on page 45, post #900, written by someone's lawyer wife, that was accepted by Erudio as evidence of financial support.

zombi

AReeves wrote: »

An initial court hearing set for 6 March 2015.
Watch this space for updates.

Anthony Reeves

Thanks for all you are doing, I'm going crazy here and I hope at least we can get a clearer view of what's going on after that initial hearing.


My MP has written to Erudio on my behalf but I doubt his letter will have any effect. I'm seriously doubting what the adjudicator will say to my ombudsman complaint also. I wonder if there's any way we can get this shambles brought up for discussion in government?

Forever

AReeves wrote: »

An initial court hearing set for 6 March 2015.
Watch this space for updates.

Anthony Reeves

That's fantastic news!

I also have some good news. Based on Anthony's legal arguments, the adjudicator from the FOS is now reassessing their decision on Erudio reporting our deferments to CRAs (for those on pre-1998 contracts).

I'll keep my fingers crossed for all of us

Sarebear78

Forever wrote: »

That's fantastic news!

I also have some good news. Based on Anthony's legal arguments, the adjudicator from the FOS is now reassessing their decision on Erudio reporting our deferments to CRAs (for those on pre-1998 contracts).

I'll keep my fingers crossed for all of us

Fingers crossed for a better reply after the reassessment and thanks again to Anthony for his insights and support

anna2007

For anyone who qualifies for their loans to be written off under the 25 year rule, rather than age, I've received clarification from BIS today on when the loans became outstanding - I think some had been told it was from when the last loan became due to be repaid in the April after graduation, which isn't the case:

"Schedule 2, part 1, paragraph 2 of the Education (Student Loans) Regulations 1998 states that “Interest will be calculated daily on the amount of the loan outstanding.” As mortgage style loans began to accrue interest from the day the first instalment was paid out to the borrower, the loan agreement became outstanding from this date (i.e. once there was a balance to be repaid and interest had begun to be charged). Consequently, our understanding is that the 25 year period began when the first instalment of a borrower’s last mortgage style student loan was paid out".

If anyone needs a copy of BIS's letter, let me know and I'll post a copy here. Although it's worth asking Erudio to confirm the exact date for cancellation in writing, they did this for me and even got the date right, but did mention (twice) that the loans only qualify if there are no arrears on the account... I wonder why they laboured that point!

RoaringTwenties

Hello Anna, thanks very much for responding in such detail to my post, it's very much appreciated

It seems that people who fit the deferment criteria are still not having their loans deferred then? Is this what the court case is about? (I'm trying to find time to read all the threads but there's a lot to take in!) I wonder if it makes a difference how close you are to the threshold, whether Erudio think they can just sneak you over it by disputing your declarations or whether they're more likely to let you defer if you're a long way away from it.

I don't think Erudio can twist the income I do have, which is basically Child Benefit & a small amount of ISA interest, to claim I am above the threshold, so I'm guessing that what will happen is that they will refuse to accept my income level, insisting I have some other form of financial support? My OH has always written a letter stating that she does not make funds available to me above the threshold, but as you say, that won't be enough this time. But how do you prove a negative? From reading previous posts here it seems people are working out half their mortgage, Council Tax etc & stating that their OH makes that available to them & that it is well under the threshold, so that might be a way forward.

I did also wonder whether spousal support of this kind (access to family money as opposed to an allowance) could be declared in section 8 as Other Means of Support that isn't taken into account as income?

With regard to the BTL, I may declare that as split three ways & even accounting for the basic allowable expenses of interest & management fees (but not wear & tear, lettings agents fees etc) I could only 'earn' £55 PCM from it.

I won't declare my DS' DLA as as you rightly say it's his benefit & not mine!

Re: the Direct Debit, did I read somewhere that giving these details & then signing this form means a new contract has been created? I thought I already had a DD set up, although I guess that was to pay SLC & not Erudio?

I was wondering about phoning Erudio to ask for advice but my sense here is not to do that, as it seems that they are incompetent at best & at worst would seek to use anything I might say against me.

And why do they need to know whether I'm a homeowner or not? I'm not happy with them demanding this level of info, but I guess if I omit info they'll use it as an excuse not to defer me...

As an aside, it would be nice if Erudio could arrange for someone to proof-read their forms for extravagant little things like correct spelling & grammar <sigh>

I think I'm seeing the way the wind is blowing here...

zombi

RoaringTwenties wrote: »

Re: the Direct Debit, did I read somewhere that giving these details & then signing this form means a new contract has been created? I thought I already had a DD set up, although I guess that was to pay SLC & not Erudio?

Hi RoaringTwenties. I set up my DD with SLC when I took out my loans, but I believe that SLC do pass these details on as Erudio managed to steal two payments from my account this year AND I'm in deferral.


The bank told me to cancel my direct debit to stop it from 'accidentally' happening again so I have done, but I'm not sure how this places me legally.

BorderReiver14

zombi wrote: »

The bank told me to cancel my direct debit to stop it from 'accidentally' happening again so I have done, but I'm not sure how this places me legally.

I'm sure Anna will confirm this for you but legally there is no obligation for you to have a DD set up while you are in deferment. Erudio gave Anna written confirmation of this I believe.