A word of warning to English students about SLC Loan Payments!

Hanniebis

Hi all, I'm a 4th year English student studying in Scotland. I just thought I'd provide a word of warning to English students:

I received my Payment Schedule, as usual, before the start of the year, saying that my 3 installments would be paid in September, November and February of this acedemic year.

A couple of weeks ago, however, a friend of mine, also English, received an amended Payment Schedule; however, I had not. Out of sheer paranoia, I contacted the SLC a couple of times and finally got a reply. They told me that my Payment Schedule had also changed - my second two payments are now the end of December and beginning of April! They had NOT notified me of this by email, telephone or letter, and I only received official notification when I demanded a revised Payment Schedule be sent to me.

Basically, if I hadn't been lucky enough to hear about it from someone else, I would never have known my schedule had changed. I would have got no loan installment in November, and thus would have been without money for over a month and a half - unable to pay for day-to-day living OR for my rent installments to my University. As a result, I am on a very, very tight budget now, trying to make what money I have left last until January and still be able to pay for some of my rent.

If you believe your next loan installment is before the end of December, please check with the SLC that this is definitely the case. I am extremely angry that they changed when my loan payments would go in by over a month in both cases well after the academic year had begun (especially as in Scotland teaching begins at the beginning of September!). I'm even more angry at the fact that they didn't inform me about it.

On a side note.. I've also had other problems with them this year in that they informed my Uni I was to pay £600 tuition fees. After a lot of firm emails/calls to various people I finally discovered that there had been a mistake in the assessment and that I didn't have to pay the Uni anything at all. But how ridiculous and stressful - and NO apology from the SLC, yet again.

Is anyone else having these kinds of problems, either with loan payment dates or tuition fee assessments? I've had problems with the SLC in the past but this year it's been ridiculous!

NaomidislikesCambridge

That's terrible.

I couldn't even get a student loan for 2 of my 4 year degree as they AUTOMATICALLY tried to give me a loan through the INCOME ASSESED route which means they look at how much your parents earn (which I'm sure most students are aware of)

They then demanded that I show some proof of how much my dad earns as he is the main breadwinner, unfortunately he works in Japan so all his work papers are in Japanese and they had the cheek to tell me that I would have to pay £300-400 to get it translated. Ofcourse I didn't do any of this but that meant that I wasn't able to get a student loan even though I explained that I should be entitled to one. Luckily I muddled through the first 2 years by working extremely long hours and with a LOT of help from my parents but I am very weary of SLC and they have had very bad press in the newspapers lately.

I'm not sure whether anyone is aware of this but you HAVE TO start paying back the student loan even if you earn less than £15,000 a year. It's something to think about.

KizzyK_2

I wish I got my next payment in November, I dont get mine till the end of January :rolleyes:

Where did you hear that you have to start paying back the student loan before the £15,000 threshold?

From the direct.gov.uk website:

If you earn less than a certain level of income - the 'repayment threshold' - you will not be required to repay anything. If you earn above the threshold, you will repay a percentage of the amount you earn over the threshold.

The repayment threshold for student loans, before deductions, is currently:

• £15,000 a year

This is equivalent to:

• £1,250 per month or
• £288 per week

roxalana

NaomidislikesCambridge wrote: »

That's terrible.

I couldn't even get a student loan for 2 of my 4 year degree as they AUTOMATICALLY tried to give me a loan through the INCOME ASSESED route which means they look at how much your parents earn (which I'm sure most students are aware of)

They then demanded that I show some proof of how much my dad earns as he is the main breadwinner, unfortunately he works in Japan so all his work papers are in Japanese and they had the cheek to tell me that I would have to pay £300-400 to get it translated. Ofcourse I didn't do any of this but that meant that I wasn't able to get a student loan even though I explained that I should be entitled to one. Luckily I muddled through the first 2 years by working extremely long hours and with a LOT of help from my parents but I am very weary of SLC and they have had very bad press in the newspapers lately.

I'm not sure whether anyone is aware of this but you HAVE TO start paying back the student loan even if you earn less than £15,000 a year. It's something to think about.

Hmm the making repayments when you earn less then £15k thing sounds a little odd to me too. Also did you not ask to be non-income assessed in year 2?

Obviously, I don't know much about your situation, but unless you didn't respond to your LEA or didn't qualify for support on residence/ previous study grounds I can't think of a reason why you wouldn't get ANY loan???

Hanniebis

NaomidislikesCambridge wrote: »

They then demanded that I show some proof of how much my dad earns as he is the main breadwinner, unfortunately he works in Japan so all his work papers are in Japanese and they had the cheek to tell me that I would have to pay £300-400 to get it translated.

:shocked: That's unbelievable!

Where did you find out that those earning under £15,000 still have to make repayments?

Swerve

Is this just because you are studying in scotland? January for me, here in england - years away!! wa wa wa

WeirdoMagnet

It's a bit odd that your payments would have come to you in Sept/Nov/Feb. Maybe your university runs different semesters/terms to the one I worked at (I was in Student Finance), but our payments were Oct/Jan/Apr, which were the start months for each of our terms. We had to let SLC (and SAAS) know that students had turned up for the payment to be triggered - no attendance, no loan!

Lokolo

Thinking about doing a calculator so I know how much I actually owe.

This for instance I am loaning £3385 with 3 installments of A, B, C.

I got my first installment of A in September. With the interest rate at 4.4% (correct me if I am wrong), do they charge this on the whole £3385, or just A from September?

Also, how often do SLC send statements of what I owe so far? (do they not until I start repaying?)

Thanks for any help :)

Hanniebis

Georgina wrote: »

It's a bit odd that your payments would have come to you in Sept/Nov/Feb. Maybe your university runs different semesters/terms to the one I worked at (I was in Student Finance), but our payments were Oct/Jan/Apr, which were the start months for each of our terms. We had to let SLC (and SAAS) know that students had turned up for the payment to be triggered - no attendance, no loan!

That's interesting..! I think it may be a different semester system. My semester begins at the start of September, finishes mid December. My second semester starts beginning of February, end of May. The problem for semester students who have their rent taken out in (what is essentially) 2 chunks instead of 3 is that they still get 3 loan installments (whereas students on the Scottish finance system get 2 - much better!). There seems to be no system to cater for students who "cross over", so to speak. All of my English friends up here are having the same kinds of problems.

Lokolo - I think they charge it on the full loan amount. Also, I think you are supposed to get a letter from the SLC at the end of every University year updating you on how much you owe so far - including interest. I've only had 2 letters so far though, in 3 years. I could be wrong, however - Georgina probably knows better than I!

WeirdoMagnet

Hanniebis wrote: »

That's interesting..! I think it may be a different semester system. My semester begins at the start of September, finishes mid December. My second semester starts beginning of February, end of May. The problem for semester students who have their rent taken out in (what is essentially) 2 chunks instead of 3 is that they still get 3 loan installments (whereas students on the Scottish finance system get 2 - much better!). There seems to be no system to cater for students who "cross over", so to speak. All of my English friends up here are having the same kinds of problems.

It must be different for each institution - I was at a FE/HE college, so maybe that's why we had three terms/semesters instead of two. It is complicated for cross-over students though, much more straighforward for Scottish students who fill in one form through SAAS, rather than English students who have to apply through thier LEA and SLC. I suppose the only thing you can do to cover your rent payments is to make sure you have applied for your maximum overdraft (but not already spent it!), or if you are renting through a private landlord, arrange to pay per month rather than per term.

Hanniebis wrote: »

Lokolo - I think they charge it on the full loan amount. Also, I think you are supposed to get a letter from the SLC at the end of every University year updating you on how much you owe so far - including interest. I've only had 2 letters so far though, in 3 years. I could be wrong, however - Georgina probably knows better than I!

Sorry, I'm not very clued up on the loans, but there is a Repayment Calculator on the Student Finance Direct Website*, and there's more info on the interest rate and how it's calculated here too.

*Only applies to English students, click here for links to other student finance bodies.

Hanniebis

Georgina wrote: »

Sorry, I'm not very clued up on the loans, but there is a Repayment Calculator on the Student Finance Direct Website*, and there's more info on the interest rate and how it's calculated here too.

*Only applies to English students, click here for links to other student finance bodies.

Thanks for the links, Georgina! All in all, despite my awful dealings with the SLC in the last few months.. I'm very more than happy to pay what will probably, for me, be about 20 quid a month, for having had the opportunity to go to and experience University! Especially as the remainder is written off after a certain amount of time and the interest is so low. I mean, it's barely even a real loan.