I’m being asked to pay my student loan back early

Sam_7640

The Student Loans Company are requesting £960 back immediately, rather than being lumped into the other tuition and maintenance loans from my undergraduate degree. 
When I was in year 1 of my course (2017), my father, who provided most of our household income, lost his job, so I updated my details and, because my household income was less, I received an extra £960 on my maintenance loan for the year. I rang Student Finance England first to check, if my father got a job again, whether this would reduce  my maintenance loan in the following years or whether it would just be added to the rest of my loan to be paid off after I graduate - they told me it would be the latter. Obviously I have no evidence of this because it was a phone call. 
The advice I got turned out to be wrong because when my loan statement for year 2 came in, they had taken £960 off of my maintenance loan. I disputed this and I had to submit a financial hardship form - this was accepted and I got to keep my full loan for that year. The exact same thing happened at the start of year 3. I believe these forms should still appear on my account so I should have evidence of these. 
Now that I have graduated, the Student Loans Company are requesting the £960 be paid back. I do not earn above the student loan repayment threshold, so I do not understand why I am being asked to repay the money. I am not currently in a financial position to afford this.

Student Loans Company have been trying to get in touch for a few months asking me to repay the £960. They said if I did not get in touch they would just keep contacting me. Because I did not have the money to repay this, I ignored them. Now they have threatened bringing in a debt collector and have said they have referred my account to Advantis Credit Ltd. No due dates have been mentioned. 
I don’t think it’s fair to make me repay my loan before I earn enough to afford it, which is essentially what I’m being asked. Is there anything I can do? Any help would be massively appreciated. Thank you.

CottonTail

Call them and set up a monthly DD to clear the payment. It sounds like an error on their side

penners324

Phone them and advise that they are wrong

elsien

penners324 said:

Phone them and advise that they are wrong

Write to them and ask for clarification. It’s phoning that’s caused the confusion in the first place. 

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/student-loans-company/about/complaints-procedure

MalMonroe

I would try phoning, and emailing and also writing - using the information in the link from elsien, above.

In my family full of graduates, including me, we have had occasion to contact student loans and they really are quite bad at absorbing information if it deviates from what they consider to be 'the norm'. 

Phoning gets the ball rolling (patience may be required at the outset), followed up my an email to confirm your call and to explain again.

Posting a letter isn't as quick but it does get their notice, eventually. When you think of all the students they have to deal with, it's understandable that there are delays but I think you really need to get to grips with this now as it's becoming urgent. Repeating your explanations will not hurt.

My daughter once did have money taken from her account at a time when she was earning peanuts and they continued to take it until they received her letter explaining her situation. They DO get things wrong. Often. She eventually received a full refund but it's better to try to avoid such things, if at all possible. 

Didn't you have to sign up for the direct debit agreement at the start of the loan? We all had to, which is why my daughter was unable to stop them taking payments. 

It's always best not to ignore demands for money, if possible because the earlier you get in touch to discuss and explain, the better it is. Saves them getting out the big guns and saves you all the hassle later.

MalMonroe

CottonTail said:

Call them and set up a monthly DD to clear the payment. It sounds like an error on their side

OP doesn't yet earn enough to start paying back anything. 

kaMelo

Certainly don't start multiple lines of communication all at the same time, that can only lead to confusion and delay as you're dealing with different people.

It's difficult to say whether you were overpaid/underpaid as your entitlement to the maintenance loan is based upon household income in the financial year two years prior to your receipt of the loan.. If it is known household income will be substantially different from the year they normally use to calculate the maintenance loan there is the option to ask them to calculate based upon this known reduced income. I seem to remember seeing their guidance on "substantially different" being around a 25% or more. 
Did your father gain employment again and fairly soon? If so this may mean you didn't qualify for the extra as the difference in income didn't qualify as "substantial."

This is all about figures and dates, for this reason I agree with elsien in writing to them would be the best option to get things on paper. Keep it short and to the point and ask for clarification on the figures they are using for their calculation and compare them to your figures to see if it's any different. Even if it turns out you were overpaid as you didn't qualify for the substantially different income calculation I still don't see where in the contract (although I admit I haven't looked at it forensically as it's long) it allows them to ask for a lump sum payment back.
Indeed nor did I realise that, as SLC is essentially the Government, they could or in fact needed to employ the services of a debt collector for repayment.