Student Finance Grant Overpayment ! Help !!

TahirM

Student Finance has been pestering me about an overpayment of a grant which occurred 2014/15. 2 Years later I get a letter declaring I had been overpaid.

They kept changing there story how this overpayment occurred and blamed myself and parents when submitting the application. However, they finally confessed this was caused due to an administrative error on there end causing to double the amount of dependants (from 2 to 4) in the household meaning the amount of grant received was increased.

The SLC company has been harassing me with letters and non-stop phone calls.

They quote the following:-

"
Furthermore the agreement that every student must sign prior to receiving
their funding contains the stipulation that in the event of receiving an
overpayment of financial support, the student is obliged to repay this
amount in full. The entitlement to funding is therefore entirely governed
by the relevant provisions of the student support regulations. We have
received guidance from DfE that an overpayment due to administrative error
is always to be recovered and so this is not an area in which we have the
authority to exercise discretion. "

However, the Legislation states that the Secretary of State must recover an overpayment of any grant for living and other costs unless the Secretary of State considers it is not appropriate to do so.

I want to escalate this further but seem to be stuck.

Can anyone assist or advise on this if you have been in a similar situation?

silvercar

If you agree that you've been overpaid, then accept you will have to pay it back. Negotiate on the term to repay it.

devildog

As Silvercar says. You could go through the Appeals Process but you will be on a hiding to nothing. One of my 'children' got paid a grant approx 12 months after leaving Uni, despite having a letter from Student Finance acknowledging their letter informing them that they had withdrawn.
If you haven't got the money to repay in one go you will have to negotiate with the Student Loans Company to pay back in installments.