HELP PLEASE!!! Erudio Student loan defferment problem

Ru

Hi Money Saving Experts,

I'm really down and I hope you can help and guide me with my student loan problem?

I was a university student between 1995 - 1999. During those years I took out a student loan. I have paid some of it off, but I still have more than half of it still outstanding.
My employment situation has been quite unstable since the recession and I have been deferring repayments since then.

I last deferred my Student Loan in April 2012 as I had been unemployed since the start of that year.
(That application was approved and deferred till 2013)
At the time I was renting a flatshare and I had a lot of financial pressures.
A few months later in July 2012 that I was offered a job abroad, so I jumped at the opportunity and left the country.

Unfortunately I totally forgot to inform student loans about my change of address.
I returned back to the UK in June 2014 and rather depressingly have been unemployed since then. (I forgot all about my Student Loan because I hadn't heard from them)
I’ve been living off my savings as I don’t want to be a burden on the state. But now I am £1200 overdrawn and the savings have run out!

Last week I got a call (at my parents home where I am currently staying) from Erudio. They checked my home address and they still had my old rental address on their records. I confirmed my change of address and they realised that they had been writing to my old address.

But they demanded that I need to pay them back over £2700 in arrears since 2013!!!??
They're demanding the money back immediately!!
They've also asked for proof of unemployment.

For this reason I applied for Job Seekers Allowance last week and am still waiting to hear whether I have been approved.

Once the approval comes through I am hoping I can prove that I am unable to pay the money Erudio are demanding.
They have sent me some deferment forms and are threatening to send me more forms and take me to a credit claims company or even take me to court. They say this will affect my credit rating!

Can you please help and advise me on what I can do to avoid my credit rating being destroyed at a time when I am simply unable to pay them any money back?

A HUGE THANK YOU in advance!!!

fermi

So you were undefered between April-July 2013 and now, which would mean you missed so far paying somewhere approx around 20 full monthly payments that you legally should have paid if not deferred.

That would be where the £2,700 of arrears come from, and I'm sorry to say if you did not bother to defer them those are legitimate and you are obliged to pay them, even if you now defer anything remaining on the loans. The arrears are due and payable now no matter what, and any deferment can only be backdated by up to 3 months.

What years exactly did you take out the loans?

As you defaulted you are going to find it hard to argue that they should not be recorded as a default on your credit report. There are some arguments around this regards pre-98 loans, but at the moment the authorities all agree they can be reported.