SFE Grant Overpayment after they confirmed all was fine - Debt Collector Letters

Chestbrah

Hi, 

I graduated from university in 2021. I have been receiving calls from Student Finance regarding a grant overpayment from the 18/19 year. When I applied for this grant (Adult Dependant's Grant), it was accepted and paid by SFE. When I received the payment, I called Student Finance on 4 separate occasions to ensure that everything was correct so as I didn't spend the money for them to then say I was not eligible (The grant was for £2,000) - It was confirmed to me on all four occasions that my evidence has been reviewed and I am entitled to the grant.

I have now been told three years later that I was not eligible and have received letters stating that I need to pay this back. I have been going back and forth with SFE now for over a year about this and they have consistently made errors, at one point I was even told that the reason I had to pay this back was that I had applied due to me having children, of which I have none and this wasn't anywhere close to what my application was for.

Maybe 6 months ago I received my first debt collectors letter and after calling them I was told SFE have now passed this to them, I informed them of the situation and they put my account on hold while SFE sorted themselves out as I was waiting on their reply.

To cut a long story short, this has now been passed to another debt collector, I have spoken to senior staff at SFE about this on the phone and they placed further holds on the debt collectors as they investigated.

I have now received an email today saying after they have reviewed this in full, I was not eligible for the grant and need to pay this back. This was due to the amounts in which I was paying to my parent not being more than £2925 within 12 months, nowhere on the application does it state this is needed.

Where do I stand on this considering I called them multiple times to confirm that all of the evidence I had sent was accepted and they said yes, they are now saying it wasn't and I need to pay this back years later?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!