ERUDIO student loans help

fermi

The requirements set down in law to defer are:

9. Each year the lender will tell the borrower the new deferment level for the period between 1st September and the following 31st August. The borrower can defer making repayments of the loan if—

(a) the lender has not already asked him to repay the loan in full, and

(b) he can show—

(i) that his gross income for the relevant month is not more than the deferment level, and

(ii) if the lender asks, that his gross average monthly income during the 3 months immediately following the relevant month will not or is unlikely to be more than the deferment level.

“relevant month” means the month before the month in which the borrower asks for deferment;

fermi

A letter confirming future earnings is certainly good enough for (ii).

(i) may be more difficult until you have at least 1 new payslip.

Erudio's line about waiting for 3 months past payslip on change of income being required has always been cynical distortion of the truth on their part if you have other proof, designed to try and avoid deferring you so you end up paying..

Lungboy

I seem to recall SLC asking for 3 months' worth too.

fermi

Yes. That is in a case where you can use last 3 months earnings to show that the next 3 months are 'unlikely' to be over the threshold, and they are available to show that because earnings are not changing. Simply because if you can give those then that is easiest.

However, in this case that is not possible due the the change in earnings, but the evidence in the form of a letter from the employer confirming that earnings for the next 3 months are not or are unlikely to be over the threshold is equally valid.

However, Erudio's line about you having to wait until you have 3 months worth of payslips on the new level, is untruthful if you can show the proof from the employer of the new salary.

That is what I was referring to.

MPE-J

SLC have and did accept employers letters in the past IME.

Erudio helpfully said if I'd left my job and started a new one it wouldn't be a problem. Issue is I'm still with the same employer doing the same job.

fermi

Brain dead and false logic from Erudio there. Job or employer is irrelevant.

The deferment conditions simply require you to show that your income for those months is unlikely to be over the threshold.

Make a formal complaint, telling them that you will be taking them to the ombudsman etc if they continue to refuse your deferment which is valid and enough under the Regulations.

MPE-J

Any suggestions as to what I should actually do?
A whole morning in the phone to Erudio has just rendered a "computer says no" style response and just constant demands for three months payslips

MPE-J

Sorry just spotted above reply, thanks for help .

anna2007

Lungboy wrote: »

One question about income evidence: can I black out bank account details like acc number/sort code etc when showing the small amount of interest I earn from savings, and just leave the interest payment amount showing?

If it's the account you have your DD set up on, then they have the account number and sort code already. If it's a different account then yes, black out everything you don't want them to see. I did this for our joint account, the only info left was the three entries I wanted them to see. The rest is none of their business.

I saved the bank statement as a jpg and opened with Paint, easy to block out the bits you want (a lot easier than the black marker I used last year!). Printed and scanned in again, as I wasn't sure if the blocked bits could be undone by Erudio on the original jpg.

anna2007

MPE-J wrote: »

Any suggestions as to what I should actually do?
A whole morning in the phone to Erudio has just rendered a "computer says no" style response and just constant demands for three months payslips

It's probably an idea to email/post Erudio a copy of your April payslip once you have it, as that's your "relevant month" under the Regulations. That, together with your employer's letter, should be enough. If they still don't accept it, then as fermi's suggested a formal complaint then FOS is an option. Bear in mind that it will probably take close to a year to get a decision from the ombudsman and there's no guarantee your complaint will be upheld (most of FOS's decisions so far have been a bit bonkers).

If you're not prepared to wait that long, the threat/use of small claims court should get it resolved far quicker.