Student Finance overpayment.

owenmonicapeter

I have lodged a complaint with student finance England regarding an overpayment from 2013/2014 and was wondering if anyone on here had dealt with similar.


A initially applied for the parents learning allowance and childcare grant on top of student finance and was awarded just over £1k for the PLA but nothing for childcare. We couldn't afford to cover the remaining £4.5k of childcare so relied on family and friends to care for our youngest. I was told that the award of PLA was not dependent on us paying childcare and you did not need to be using childcare to be eligible.


Moving forward to the 2014/2015 application, I did not apply for childcare as my husbands income was the same as last year so unlikely to be awarded, I did apply for PLA but this was refused as we are 'overscale'. I queried this and was told that because I did not apply for childcare this year, I did not receive an award for PLA and was advised to apply for childcare.


I asked (on numerous occasions) if my 2013/2014 award was correct as I did not used childcare and was told it was correct and as I had not received help I did not have to send in the CCG2 form and I was reassured again that I did not have to be claiming/using childcare to be eligible for PLA.


Today I find out that my 2013/2014 award has been reassessed and not only am I not eligible for PLA next year, they want to reclaim what I was paid last year!!!
And despite not receiving help with childcare, they would still want the CCG2 form to show what I was paying and the woman on the phone said it looks like I received the PLA on the basis that I was using childcare but agreed that the information surrounding these grants are contradictory.


Student finance are infuriating!!