Anyone Still Waiting for their loan?

shelley_crow

I applied to my uni through clearing and was accepted in september, i sent my loan forms off on 5th septermber and they got bac to me last week with the final decision and the amount to be paid soon. Although, my friend applied for the loan months before i did and is still waiting to hear, i think it's luck of the draw. Hope you get it sorted out soon x

jenniferdew75

I applied on the 16th september so I'm guessing I missed the deadline. I'm still waiting for my loan now and I phoned SFD and they gave me the number for my LEA so I phoned them and they said my forms only just been passed down to the eligibility team and should take about 2 weeks till I hear back. It's just a really poor system, you'd think they'd sort it out. I'm just gonna keep ringing I think. Poor poor poor

flake_2

Well to be fair you did the miss deadline by quite a lot! Was april/may i think. But it seems there is no correlation between how early you apply and when you get your loan.

I'm still waiting...they said the money would come through this wk so i will phone tomorrow.

I also contacted an education journalist, from the guardian, she sounded really interested in reporting it, says she will write an article nxt week. Told her about this forum aswell and so if anyone is interested in talking to her that would be good. I mainly did it cos of what i read on here, my story is not so bad but some of the ones on here are!

EthelBloggs

I'm still waiting.. spoke to someone at the slc last week in tears because things are getting so dire.. I've got £1.47 in my purse to last me til it comes through.. that's not even lunch money for one of my children :eek:

SLC said they'd raise the status of my application to critical but a week later and still nothing has happened. I'm waiting for a callback from the LEA again but not holding my breath and I don't have the money to get to uni now so...... I donno what to do anymore

PasturesNew

dmg24 wrote: »

Why did you apply so late?

The university did not 'forget' to tell you that you could set up a DD, you did not ask!

People who say that are the worst people in the world: "You only had to ask" ... "I didn't !!!!in' know ... how could I have asked"

flake_2

EthelBloggs wrote: »

I'm still waiting.. spoke to someone at the slc last week in tears because things are getting so dire.. I've got £1.47 in my purse to last me til it comes through.. that's not even lunch money for one of my children :eek:

SLC said they'd raise the status of my application to critical but a week later and still nothing has happened. I'm waiting for a callback from the LEA again but not holding my breath and I don't have the money to get to uni now so...... I donno what to do anymore

:eek: aw i am so sorry, that's awful!! the only thing i can think of is to get a 0% on purchases credit card, and then pay if off when you get your loan? But don't know how long it will take to get the card..

Well my situation seems pretty mild now, but they said they would update my application last wk, and the money would be in my account THIS wk...and i phone them and they did nothing last week or this week, still haven't updated the payslip that was given to them in july. They say 'oh that's odd, i just don't understand how nothing has been done'....well that's because you haven't done it!:rolleyes:

So now it will be probably a couple of weeks..before which time i have to pay the £3070 tuition fees to my university?! I have no way of doing this.

[Deleted User]

Any University that is charging variable (top-up) fees should provide financial/debt advice, either through the Students' Union or as a department of the University itself.

Anyone who is having difficulties because their loan hasn't come through should access this service. It's possible that the adviser can get the Uni to hold off on collection of tuition/hall fees while you wait for your loan. They may be able to help you access an emergency loan even if you don't have your support notification from SLC. They may also be able to get through to the SLC more easily on the HEI Helpline.

Of course, they might not be able to do any of these things, but they may have other suggestions to help.

Please contact one of these services if you are struggling.

roxalana

flake wrote: »

Hey roxalana, yeh i am sure you do care, i feel sorry for you guys being overstretched, and probably being yelled at quite a lot, if you are doing your job well.

It is not your fault it is the fault of whoever made the decision to hire so few people! Your phones are overloaded with calls, yet my LEA finishes early on a friday and is not open on weekends to call. No offence but if you can't answer your phone extend your calling hours! If it really does take you 3 months to update information that is sent in july onto my account then hire more people!
Mind you that does just seem like they completely forgot about it.

Yes we would like more people to be hired too! Unfortunately, unless the powers-that-be receive complaints they will assume we are coping and complaints from the staff at the department do not count. We did all we could but they made a lot of staff redundant anyway...(blamed on restrictiosn on council tax rises)

In comparison to last year, I am doing work that last year I would have started in late July/August.

Sadly all LEAs will be going the way of the pilot schemes (all new entrants for the 2009/10 academic year will be processed by the SLC instead of the LEA) despite the problems that have been highlighted and I can't help but think this might be why student support is not a priority in Council budgets. Plus I guess if the service seems poor at the LEA it will make the service at the SLC seem better...

but perhaps I am just cynical!

EthelBloggs

Just spoke to the SLC again, the emails they sent to the LEA have still not been opened after a week despite being marked as critical. The very nice person who took my call gave me the details of where to send complaints and agreed that I had some justification in doing so.. I mentioned that a national broadsheet newspaper was looking into doing a piece on this issue and she said well hopefully if they do it'll make the LEA's pull their finger out. She was very nice but kept reiterating that her hands are pretty much tied until the LEA actually look at my application, which they haven't done yet :mad:

roxalana

EthelBloggs wrote: »

Just spoke to the SLC again, the emails they sent to the LEA have still not been opened after a week despite being marked as critical. The very nice person who took my call gave me the details of where to send complaints and agreed that I had some justification in doing so.. I mentioned that a national broadsheet newspaper was looking into doing a piece on this issue and she said well hopefully if they do it'll make the LEA's pull their finger out. She was very nice but kept reiterating that her hands are pretty much tied until the LEA actually look at my application, which they haven't done yet :mad:

Sorry that you are having problems with this. The SLC don't email your LEA. They set up a 'task' which appears on your PROTOCOL computer record. Unfortunately (I'm not defending this system) unless someone looks at your computer record they do not see the task to contact you is there.

Please ring your LEA directly (it is unlikely they will see the task from the SLC and ring you).

Hope this helps because I can appreciate yoru frustration.