Help! SFE have put me in a dire Financial Hardship situation
Bitcoinguy
Forumite 14 Posts
Hi All,
I am a non-UK national, on a Spouse Dependant Visa (my husband is a British Citizen), since 2016. I have however been in the UK for more than 3 years as I had been on a Tier 4 Student Visa for 1.5 years prior to getting married.
I applied via UCAS for Teacher Training and I was offered a full Bursary for ITT at two schools, out of the three that I applied to.
I accepted one offer, on the day of the interview (June 2018), I presented all my documents (passport, visa, certificates etc) and I was advised that I would be eligible for the bursary. I then started doing my application through Student Finance for the bursary (as I was advised that is how it works). I sent my application to Student Finance in July. At the same time, I had sent my visa renewal application (inc. passport + current visa) to the Home Office (yeah, pot luck!).
I spoke with Student Finance then for advice on what documents to send for proof of ID. The advisor I spoke to, advised me to send my Driving License and my National Insurance card (originals) as proof of ID given the fact that I did not have my passport on me at the time. A week after the documents had been securely delivered to SFE, I called again to get an update because Student Finance never contacted me to let know if there was a problem with my documents or not. The advisor I spoke to sounded quite unsure of himself. He advised me that I should not have sent my National Insurance card as proof of ID and that I should have sent my passport instead. I was shocked as I only sent my NI card because I was advised so. After a very long phone call, I was told I needed to send a letter from the Home Office if I did not have my passport on me and I was assured that my application would be approved by the advisor. I sent the Home Office letter to SFE. Again, a week after sending this document, I heard nothing back from SFE. So I called them to get an update. The advisor I spoke to then told me that the Home Office letter could not be accepted as it was a photocopy, not an original. The letter was infact the original letter and I had a hard time, several phone calls and days back and forth, trying to get SFE to atleast consider the letter, which they then accepted to consider. I was advised that this would be fine for my eligibility and that I would getting a confirmation in 20 days.
Based on the assurance SFE gave me and the offer letter from the school, I started my DBS application via the school and paid £90 for it. I resigned from my full time job to be able to start the teaching course which was supposed to begin 10th September 2018.
At the same time, my application with SFE was still in progress, albeit without being given any sort of updates unless I called them, waited for 10-15mins on the phone went through explaining the same thing with every advisor I spoke to.
By the 3rd week of September, I was already training as a Teacher in the school full time.
A couple of days later, I received an email from Student Finance which basically said that my Home Office documents were being returned to me, without any explanation. So, I called SFE for an explanation because I thought, could the document have been refused as evidence given the fact that I had a hard time earlier in the month trying to explain to them that the document was infact an original. When I spoke with the SFE advisor, I was told that my application was still in process and it was with their assessor’s team, and that the Home Office letter was returned as it had already been assessed. I was told it would take another 20 days to get a confirmation. By then, all my other teaching colleagues had already received their bursary payments. It was getting frustrating, it was already October, I had no payments/salary/bursary and I had already been training/teaching for nearly a month. I called SFE again, I called them several times infact in the past 2 weeks.
On Monday 1st Oct, I asked to speak with a manager to get an update on my application as the advisors I spoke to were only telling that I would need to wait another 20 days, when it had been well over 2 months since I applied and I always had to chase for an update on my application and I was never told advised of any issues/missing documentations etc with my application unless I called them and asked for an update. I was advised a manager from SFE would call me back within 24hours. Needless to say, 24 hours later, I had no phone calls. I called SFE back myself on Thursday to speak with a manager, who I finally got hold of. The manager told me they received the information they require from the Home Office and that I would be getting my confirmation letter after 20 days. He assured me that there was no issues in terms of documentation proofs as I presented all possible documents and that my Student Finance Bursary application would be approved by their assessors. I expressed my concern that it had been quite long since I applied and that I had already started teaching but not yet received any payment. The manager advised that I would be getting my bursary and that if there were any issues in terms of eligibility, I would have already been made aware of it in July when I sent my documents. I was told that payment for my bursary would only happen after those 20 days had elapsed. I was frustrated, tired and it was just getting too much for me mentally but I had to wait.
However, 5 days later, on Monday 8th October, I called SFE again to complain because I could not afford to keep on working for a month without being paid and I also had to pay the school via that bursary payment. I was then told by the advisor that my application to SFE had been refused as ineligible. I was shocked, I did not receive ANY sort of communication from SFE to advise me of this, and I was assured by SFE advisors and the manager all the way along that everything would be fine for me.
Right now, I am in a position where I resigned from my full time job, started teacher training at the school for over a month, received no payments whatsoever yet and the school is advising me that I would have to choose between carrying on with the training and paying the £7000 course fees from my pocket and losing out on the bursary OR withdrawing from the teacher training course altogether, with my career and a lot of sacrifice/studies on the line. I am not even asking for a Student Finance LOAN, I had been offered a Bursary by the Education PROVIDER, and I was advised that I would get my bursary payment through them. I even put £0 for maintenance loan/studies loan when I applied to SFE. This is completely unjust and very very stressful. I am tired mentally dealing with SFE.
Please Help Me.
I am a non-UK national, on a Spouse Dependant Visa (my husband is a British Citizen), since 2016. I have however been in the UK for more than 3 years as I had been on a Tier 4 Student Visa for 1.5 years prior to getting married.
I applied via UCAS for Teacher Training and I was offered a full Bursary for ITT at two schools, out of the three that I applied to.
I accepted one offer, on the day of the interview (June 2018), I presented all my documents (passport, visa, certificates etc) and I was advised that I would be eligible for the bursary. I then started doing my application through Student Finance for the bursary (as I was advised that is how it works). I sent my application to Student Finance in July. At the same time, I had sent my visa renewal application (inc. passport + current visa) to the Home Office (yeah, pot luck!).
I spoke with Student Finance then for advice on what documents to send for proof of ID. The advisor I spoke to, advised me to send my Driving License and my National Insurance card (originals) as proof of ID given the fact that I did not have my passport on me at the time. A week after the documents had been securely delivered to SFE, I called again to get an update because Student Finance never contacted me to let know if there was a problem with my documents or not. The advisor I spoke to sounded quite unsure of himself. He advised me that I should not have sent my National Insurance card as proof of ID and that I should have sent my passport instead. I was shocked as I only sent my NI card because I was advised so. After a very long phone call, I was told I needed to send a letter from the Home Office if I did not have my passport on me and I was assured that my application would be approved by the advisor. I sent the Home Office letter to SFE. Again, a week after sending this document, I heard nothing back from SFE. So I called them to get an update. The advisor I spoke to then told me that the Home Office letter could not be accepted as it was a photocopy, not an original. The letter was infact the original letter and I had a hard time, several phone calls and days back and forth, trying to get SFE to atleast consider the letter, which they then accepted to consider. I was advised that this would be fine for my eligibility and that I would getting a confirmation in 20 days.
Based on the assurance SFE gave me and the offer letter from the school, I started my DBS application via the school and paid £90 for it. I resigned from my full time job to be able to start the teaching course which was supposed to begin 10th September 2018.
At the same time, my application with SFE was still in progress, albeit without being given any sort of updates unless I called them, waited for 10-15mins on the phone went through explaining the same thing with every advisor I spoke to.
By the 3rd week of September, I was already training as a Teacher in the school full time.
A couple of days later, I received an email from Student Finance which basically said that my Home Office documents were being returned to me, without any explanation. So, I called SFE for an explanation because I thought, could the document have been refused as evidence given the fact that I had a hard time earlier in the month trying to explain to them that the document was infact an original. When I spoke with the SFE advisor, I was told that my application was still in process and it was with their assessor’s team, and that the Home Office letter was returned as it had already been assessed. I was told it would take another 20 days to get a confirmation. By then, all my other teaching colleagues had already received their bursary payments. It was getting frustrating, it was already October, I had no payments/salary/bursary and I had already been training/teaching for nearly a month. I called SFE again, I called them several times infact in the past 2 weeks.
On Monday 1st Oct, I asked to speak with a manager to get an update on my application as the advisors I spoke to were only telling that I would need to wait another 20 days, when it had been well over 2 months since I applied and I always had to chase for an update on my application and I was never told advised of any issues/missing documentations etc with my application unless I called them and asked for an update. I was advised a manager from SFE would call me back within 24hours. Needless to say, 24 hours later, I had no phone calls. I called SFE back myself on Thursday to speak with a manager, who I finally got hold of. The manager told me they received the information they require from the Home Office and that I would be getting my confirmation letter after 20 days. He assured me that there was no issues in terms of documentation proofs as I presented all possible documents and that my Student Finance Bursary application would be approved by their assessors. I expressed my concern that it had been quite long since I applied and that I had already started teaching but not yet received any payment. The manager advised that I would be getting my bursary and that if there were any issues in terms of eligibility, I would have already been made aware of it in July when I sent my documents. I was told that payment for my bursary would only happen after those 20 days had elapsed. I was frustrated, tired and it was just getting too much for me mentally but I had to wait.
However, 5 days later, on Monday 8th October, I called SFE again to complain because I could not afford to keep on working for a month without being paid and I also had to pay the school via that bursary payment. I was then told by the advisor that my application to SFE had been refused as ineligible. I was shocked, I did not receive ANY sort of communication from SFE to advise me of this, and I was assured by SFE advisors and the manager all the way along that everything would be fine for me.
Right now, I am in a position where I resigned from my full time job, started teacher training at the school for over a month, received no payments whatsoever yet and the school is advising me that I would have to choose between carrying on with the training and paying the £7000 course fees from my pocket and losing out on the bursary OR withdrawing from the teacher training course altogether, with my career and a lot of sacrifice/studies on the line. I am not even asking for a Student Finance LOAN, I had been offered a Bursary by the Education PROVIDER, and I was advised that I would get my bursary payment through them. I even put £0 for maintenance loan/studies loan when I applied to SFE. This is completely unjust and very very stressful. I am tired mentally dealing with SFE.
Please Help Me.
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Replies
As a foreign national without ILR you're not entitled to government funding. You put yourself in this situation not SFE!
And do we really want someone who doesn't understand this to be teaching the nation's children?
Exactly, and even if they got ILR now they still wouldn't qualify on residence not as a student!
I'm pretty sure the school (Ofsted Outstanding) that decided to offer me the role along with a Bursary would have made their decision based on my academic qualifications, knowledge of the subject matter and experience.
If you feel you have the resilience, subject knowledge and subject delivery experience, and most of all, if you feel you have the strength to manage, lead and educate a class of 40 teenagers in a class, in a state school, in London, please feel free to apply.
You would get your own chance to educate the nation's children!
As I said before, I did not apply to SFE for any Student Loan albeit Government Funding. On my application to the SFE, I put £0 as maintenance/studies loan.
The Bursary comes from the School themselves, who also confirmed my eligibility for it.
Where do you think the Schools, SFE and Universities get the money from to give out as grants and bursaries? From the Government, hence why you are not eligible.
:wall::wall::wall::wall::wall::wall:
I am not here fighting for my my eligibility. If you read my long post carefully, you would understand the key points are:
1. I was advised I am eligible from Day 1. I trusted the information I was given because this information was being given by the school itself, not by a random guy on the street.
2. I followed procedure and I applied to SFE.
3. SFE at no point explained to me or told me, "Hold on, you're not UK, EEA national neither, you are thus not eligible." Despite the fact that I explained my whole situation to them.
4. SFE never provided me any update and each advisor I spoke to at SFE gave different conflicting information.
5. Some SFE advisors I spoke to misinformed me, "As long you are in the UK for 3 years, you are eligible and you will get your bursary." Two of their advisors even told me that eligibility for the bursary depends on the teaching provider, which in my case, is the school that offered me the job and the bursary on day 1. Looking back now, these people obviously have no idea nor any training on what the criteria for Student Finance are and what impact it can have on someone's life.
6. If I were not eligible, why drag this all the way to the point that I am now jobless? Why not just tell me straightaway, "Sorry you are not eligible, bye bye."
Why would you leave a job even thinking you were eligible knowing you have no access to public funds. Sorry but this is your own mistake
Back up plan?
Funding from family? Career development loan?
Part time tutoring privately as you study?
Unfortunately, there is no backup plan. Its basically a case of:
I got offered a job role and was advised I am eligible for the bursary. I applied for the bursary. In the meantime, I had to start on the role (as school terms beginning in Sept 2018), thus I had to resign from my job. Making a backup plan was out of question/need because everything was going on smoothly and at no point did either the school or SFE told me I can't carry on, until last week.
Now, 6 weeks after teaching, I am left with no income. I'm in a pickle.
I just can't imagine what could have happened if I was a mother of 2 kids..