Misadvised by student loans company and now I have overpayment. Advice please?

invisibility

Hi all,

I'm panicking majorly right now. I was a part-time masters student who took out a full postgraduate loan to fund this. I was in my second year before I decided to withdraw fairly recently (about two weeks ago).

Before I made the decision to withdraw I sought out the relevant information regarding where I would stand financially. I was aware I'd owe the university £600 and I called student finance england and they advised me that I would have no overpayment for this term and that this term's payment would get added to my balance. Considering £1200 of the £1500 payment has already gone on tuition fees, this is what I wanted to hear as I wouldn't possibly have been able to pay anything back.

So I withdrew based on that information only to receive a letter that I have been overpaid by £1500. I've rang SLC who passed me over to SFE, both companies can see on the system that I was advised there would be no overpayment due. They are bouncing me from each other - SLC say that it's over the SFE, SFE say they cannot change what is on the system.

If I had known there would have been an overpayment it would have changed when I withdrew. It would have been in my interest to wait until January with withdrawn immediately before the next set of tuition.

I withdrew in the good faith that SFE had advised me correctly and I don't believe I should pay this repayment. Does anyone know where I can do next with this as I have gotten nowhere from just talking to them? Even though they can see clearly on the system that I've been misadvised and acted on that advice.

Westie983

Hi,

Sorry to hear your news but other then contacting SLC and SFE its hard to offer any more advise and as a forum of people with limited knowledge of the systems and how it works I would suggest you don't take advise from an internet forum over advisors of SFE and SLC...

If you are not getting anywhere speaking to them then I would start to put your complaint in an email so you have a form of written evidence that you can use if you take or need to take it further.

My experience of university and funding is that the payments are sent to the student three times as year and if you withdraw they could be a overpayment of funds as you will be paid funds to cover you till the next payment and if you withdraw before the next payment is due then you will be overpaid.

I know you were given incorrect advise but it does sound like an overpayment has been made so your next step is to contact them and suggest a payment plan as you can't afford to pay it all back at the same time.

Were you living in student accommodation have you been able to get out of that contract if not you may need to check you haven't got a liability there too.

Do you have any of the last payment left to offer straight back to them so it shows willing and more likely to offer you a payment plan.

Put things in writing so you have something in writing rather than relying on phone calls even if it shows on the system what was said, it could easily be deleted so having writing to back it up will help.

Good luck

Westie983

invisibility

Thankfully I got this written off. An overpayment was made and I had been wrongly advised but after me following this up and making an official complaint, they accepted that their advice altered my decision so agreed it wouldn't have to be paid.