Grant overpayment

NemoII

Hi everyone! I'm looking for a bit of advice about student finance grants, I'd really appreciate any information related to this! Also I'm new to the forum, I'm not sure if this is the right forum for this topic so apologies if it's not!

I received a letter from student finance around a week ago telling me that in the academic year starting 2013 I was overpaid in grants by £420 and that I need to pay it back. I called them and spoke to several different people, who all apologised and completely acknowledged that it was their fault (it was apparently a computer error back then, which they only realised now). But they said that even though it's their fault and they're sorry that I have to suffer because of their mistake, I still have to pay it back.

So my question is that should I have to pay it back? I submitted all my details and my family's income evidence to them correctly, and made no changes to my course etc that would in anyway make it my fault. Also I've been researching this a bit on the internet, and I've come across several places which describes the principle/law of estoppel, which says that you can defend yourself in cases of overpayment if you can prove that the you were lead to believe that you were entitled to that money (I have copies of the letter of entitlement that they sent me, and evidence that they paid me exactly what they said they would pay me), have changed your 'financial position' by spending it as a result, and that it is primarily not your own fault (they freely admit that it's their fault). I'm wondering whether this would apply in this case, as I've only seen that principle used in terms of overpayment of wages?

Sorry for the essay, I'd really appreciate any help on this topic as I'm still a student and can't afford to pay that back.

Thanks you

polgara

The first thing you need to check is the paperwork for the student finance - I'll bet that there is a statement saying that any overpayments will need to be paid back (or something like that).

You may want to think about a payment plan - what can you afford and over how long a period.

jobbingmusician

I have never known an appeal on the basis of estoppel to work when it relates to a government department. The way I would approach this would be to explain that if the money is repaid NOW, it will have a severe effect on your studies, since you are still a student living on virtually nothing and so have no means of repaying it. I would suggest that you say that you will accept the debt, if they simply add it to your student loan so that you can repay it once you start earning properly.