Erudio deferment criteria

david6178

My daughter has pre 1998 student loans, has lived in Australia since 2006 and is now an Australian citizen. I have managed her deferment applications since then. Those applications have always included her Australian income [below the threshold] and the rental losses of her UK house in which she is trapped by a non-transferable Northern Rock mortgage and, until recently, negative equity. In all that time Erudio did not mention that rental losses were not considered. I now find, for the first time, that as her Australian income is over the threshold [albeit only just], that rental losses do not count. A protracted debate ensued with Erudio to no avail. Unfortunately, at that time ill health meant she had to give up work and she was unemployed for 4 months whilst recovering. A further application for deferment was made on this basis only to be rejected on the ground that the claim was out of time. The Financial Ombudsman has not upheld my appeal stating that Erudio have followed their procedures. As a 72-year old pensioner and my daughter with a young family we are not in a position to repay Erudio in the timescale proposed [60 months]. I understand that SLC repayments are 9% of annual income. Can anyone advise if there is a defence should this matter go to court that rental losses should be considered and/or that a 4-month delay in application is not a ground for refusing deferment? Apologies for the long post.

scorpian99

it makes no difference if your in australia  just tell them to drop dead.
they are liars and con men  who will lie in court.   they have no interest even if you dont earn enough to pay them they just deny the deferment.   i earn almost halve the amount and they refused me  all they want is the money and they dont care how they get it

sourcrates

If she resides in Austrailia its very unlikely they will chase her all the way there.

It would normally require the debt to be bought by an Austrailian debt collector, who would then chase for payment in her country of residence, its extreamly rare for debts to be sold internationally, Erudio may try and get a judgement in this country, then just let it slide, as a final means mess to you about, then sell the debt on.

MalMonroe

sourcrates said:

If she resides in Austrailia its very unlikely they will chase her all the way there.

It would normally require the debt to be bought by an Austrailian debt collector, who would then chase for payment in her country of residence, its extreamly rare for debts to be sold internationally, Erudio may try and get a judgement in this country, then just let it slide, as a final means mess you about.

That's not correct. Australia and the UK have a reciprocal agreement which means that if you move to Australia and you still owe money to large financial institutions here - such as Erudio or DWP, they are legally entitled to chase payment.

It is not 'extremely rare' for debts to be sold internationally. And Erudio will not 'let it slide'.

sourcrates

I`m well aware of the reciprocal agreement in place between the two countries, but this is normally used in cases where quite large amounts of money are involved, enforcing judgments abroad can be a complex and costly exercise. and Erudio will not waste more money it has no guarentee of getting back, attempting to enforce this abroad.

In theory what you say is correct, in practice if they can`t get the money from the OP in the most inexpecive way possible, they will simply sell there obligations on to someone else.

Erudio are a company formed by debt collectors Arrow Global and private equity firm CarVal Investors, they allegedly, have a reputation for unwarranted threatening letters, phone calls and visits, and for basically ignoring disputes, lying in court, using underhand tactics, the list of complaints about poor service and shoddy working practices goes on and on.

MalMonroe

david6178 said:

My daughter has pre 1998 student loans, has lived in Australia since 2006 and is now an Australian citizen. I have managed her deferment applications since then. Those applications have always included her Australian income [below the threshold] and the rental losses of her UK house in which she is trapped by a non-transferable Northern Rock mortgage and, until recently, negative equity. In all that time Erudio did not mention that rental losses were not considered. I now find, for the first time, that as her Australian income is over the threshold [albeit only just], that rental losses do not count. A protracted debate ensued with Erudio to no avail. Unfortunately, at that time ill health meant she had to give up work and she was unemployed for 4 months whilst recovering. A further application for deferment was made on this basis only to be rejected on the ground that the claim was out of time. The Financial Ombudsman has not upheld my appeal stating that Erudio have followed their procedures. As a 72-year old pensioner and my daughter with a young family we are not in a position to repay Erudio in the timescale proposed [60 months]. I understand that SLC repayments are 9% of annual income. Can anyone advise if there is a defence should this matter go to court that rental losses should be considered and/or that a 4-month delay in application is not a ground for refusing deferment? Apologies for the long post.

Not being rude but I think scorpian99 has had a bit too much to drink. Best not to tell anyone to drop dead.

Erudio WILL chase debts when people move overseas. However, they still have to be earning over the threshold before they start paying anything. Unfortunately, loans pre-1998 won't be written off until the ex student is 65. This is a very useful link.
https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/articles/repaying-student-loans
And in fact, your daughter could have been doing her own deferments from Oz. 

If Erudio has made a mistake, and it appears that they have, then that would be an excellent defence for your daughter if this matter were to go to court, which I doubt it would. All you have to do is make a statement to that effect, with proof, if it is available. 

All your daughter, or her representative, has to do is to detail exactly what happened, as you have done, and provide copies of bank statements to prove her income, or lack of it, to Erudio and I am sure they will consider her case again. It's not clear why they think that she is earning enough to pay now.

We had a similar experience with my daughter, who took out her student loan in 1997 but fell ill the following year and had to defer payments and went to live for a while in Australia - she's an Australian citizen too. She did come back and had to more or less detail her whole life experience for Erudio's benefit but she was granted the deferment as she has never been able to earn more than the amount at which they start taking repayments. 

Just because she's in Australia does not mean they will not chase your daughter because the government does chase people who owe money in the UK - they have a reciprocal agreement with the UK to do so. 

If she doesn't earn the money (and this debt cannot be counted as your responsibility at all) - then she can't pay Erudio anything. But she does need to make a very detailed statement for submission to Erudio, keeping strictly to the facts and stressing that she does not earn enough money to repay. No need to start going on about rental losses or anything like that, she just needs to detail her incomings and outgoings and if they made an error in the past, that needs to be highlighted. 

Don't ignore anything, though because that will make things worse.

sourcrates

You`ve obviously never dealt with Arrow Global MalMonroe.

HobgoblinBT

As your daughter has a non redeemable Northern Rock Mortgage and makes rental losses, can she sell the flat and use the proceeds to meet the loan arrears?  Doing so would put her in a better position financially without having to top up the rent to meet her mortgage.