Student finance dispute

Nades84

Hi everyone, my first time posting so apologies if I've posted in the wrong place!

I'm currently in a dispute with student finance, they contacted me at the end of last year saying I owe them £2100 for an overpayment of a childcare grant from 2009/10 (this was my last year at university). My first question to them was why have they taken so long to chase me for this supposed "overpayment" from 7/8 years ago, the woman on the phone couldn't answer this. They also said that they don't hold records from back then so couldn't tell me how much I had claimed per week for the childminder my son was with but admitted that I must have sent in all forms etc as I wouldn't have been paid if I hadn't.

I've managed to find the child minder who had my son but she hasn't got any paperwork from then as it was so long ago and I haven't got a clue how many days/hours a week he was with her.

Where do I go from here?? Can I use the statute of limitations act or will that not work with it being a student grant? They've currently put the account on hold but we're in the process of trying to get a mortgage so getting a CCJ would be devastating

Thanks in advance

sourcrates

You can use the Limitations act yes.

The only issue is that the student loans company can take money directly from your wages, however I would contact National Debtline for advice on this.

System

I work in an institution that has daily dealings with SLC...the verdict, they really don't know what they are doing in many cases. There seems to be a total disregard for putting notes on the system. We had a learner who had a full year's worth of tuition only for SLC to finally get back to them in April to say that they won't fund him, leaving him with a fee of thousands.

Personally, I paid off my loan (nearly 1k) and they had no idea I had. I had to ring and tell them how much I'd paid off...! They had no clue - should have done it years ago and added a few mystery thousands on !!

Similar to you, they also said they didn't have my overpayment, my employer did. Employer said no, turns out after the third SLC employee I spoke to, SLC confirmed they actually did. I would be tempted to ignore them, it'd probably go away !

National_Debtline

Hi Nades84 and welcome to MSE,

You should argue limitations in this situation. An overpayment of the child care grant is not the same as a student loan so they wouldn't be able to go through your wage (but I can understand the confusion on this point). Send the statute barred letter - https://www.nationaldebtline.org/EW/sampleletters/Pages/Time-has-run-out-to-recover-the-debt-%28sole-name%29.aspx

This asks them to prove there has been a valid written acknowledgement or payment from you to them, since this fell due. If they cannot demonstrate this and it has been longer than 6 years since it fell due, then they would be too late to start court action. You would ask them to stop contacting you and if they persist you can complain on the grounds of harassment.

This shouldn't be on your credit file so I would suggest you argue the age of this debt, rather than worry about whether it is accurate or not. Good luck,


Laura
@natdebtline

Nades84

Thank you SO much everyone! I'll send them the letter and see what happens, it was the thought of it going to court that terrified me! Thanks again, I'll get the letter sent off recorded delivery asap