student loan mistake

Ewood81

sorry this is so long winded. I started uni in sept 1999 in England moving over from NI. Completed just under the 2 years and left in 2001 without completing second year exams. I therefore received into my student NatWest account 6 instalments from September 1999 until April 2001 totalling 7600.
I got a job and started paying back in 2002 automatically from my wages. I never received statements and thought nothing as I was paying anyway and never thought much off it. I moved back to NI at the beginning of 2004 with a job transfer. Apart from 2 years of maternity where very little was paid I presumed I’d brought down the debt considerably until I suddenly received a statement stating I owed 8000 still in Sept 2015!! so basically I borrowed 7600 have payed on average 75 per month for 15 years and still owe 8000 [IMG]file:///C:/Users/elaine/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image001.gif[/IMG]
I rang and after going through the security got told that on the 4/4/2004 the SLC transferred my final years 3 instalments in ONE lump sum totalling £3812 into my student loan account. They proceeded to send me copied of all my student loan statements for the missing years to prove this. I rang NatWest to discuss this to be told that my account had been closed in October 2003 due to inactivity. My wages were paid in shop and I had no use for the account when I left uni so abandoned it really.
The bank sent me a letter stating that my account no longer existed on the date of the transfer and therefore I did not receive or could not have received the money they claim. I have given this to the SLC to be told they never received the money back and therefore payments will continue!
Currently the citizens advise have been looking into this for exactly one year now and are no further forward than I was. Please can anyone give me any advice as to how I can sort this. I am 100% with paying what I owe but not this added lump sum not to mention the interest attached. I can’t seem to stop payments either until this is resolved. I recognize that there is obviously a time limit on this sort of thing but my not having received statements meant I was unaware of this until 11 years after the error had occurred!
Just to note as well that the address I originally applied from is still the home address my mother lives at and she is fantastic at keeping/hoarding things like that so I know they weren't misplaced and the SLC always had it on record for contact hence this random statement years down the line. This has caused me no end of stress as I've just been accepted onto a degree here in NI and now I’m being told I may not get funding!!

stevenhp1987

http://www.slc.co.uk/media/5033/slc_complaints_2017_en_d.pdf

Have you followed this complaints process? Which stage in the process are you at?

I'd also ask SLC to confirm what account they sent the money into, what date, and by which method. They should also provide a unique identifier for the transaction that you can give your bank to trace.

Ewood81

This is the second complaint I've started in jan past as emails got ignored from citizens advice. In my last email in march I requested the details for the ambudsman that deals with student loans and they've ignored me since. Yes they sent me a copy of the statement from that year showing the bank account they transferred to in my first to years and the method was BACS. All details correct for transfer but bank say money would have bounced back as account wasn't active at this stage.

DCFC79

At a guess id say the ombudsman is the FOS, give them a ring to ask.

Ewood81

Thanks I'll give them a try. I was actually in with the local authority for student loans today and thankfully I will have no problem applying for loan for this course and my dispute won't affect anything as I'm not in arrears if anything if paid well over what I owed including interest she said. 😂.

Ewood81

No sure the FOS doesn't deal with student loans at all. I tried them last year. They said I'd just have to go through the student loan company and escalate it to the independent complaint service which I've been trying to do to no avail.