Payment received in error

markh606

Hi 
My daughter has temporarily suspended her Uni studies due to health and informed student finance that this was the case. 
She was told the updates needed to come from the University, so she spoke to the Uni to advise them of this. 
In sept she received a text message to say she would be receiving the money so contacted student finance to again confirm they were aware of the situation. She again contacted the university to ask them to confirm they had contacted student finance. To which they said they had
A few days later my daughter received the money and so contacted student finance again and was told that it needs to be put down as an overpayment rather than repayment at this stage to ensure no interest charges would be added. She also asked about returning the money but was told they needed confirmation from the Uni. 
Various emails chasing the Uni then occurred waiting for a response. 
In early Oct student finance confirmed that they had received details from the university but it would take a couple of weeks for the system to update. 
When she called them back after the time had passed, it turned out that the University had mistakenly noted that my daughter was still attending the university. After a couple of days back and forth between the loan company and the University, we have now been told the records have been updated but again it will take time for the system to update, in the meantime her erroneous payment was still incurring interest and it was likely to take a further 7-10 days to complete. We were also told that we couldn't pay the money back at this stage as it would be taken as a repayment of the entire loan and could impact future loans when she returns to her studies 

I have sent in a complaint to the loan company and suggested the removal of any interest charges on that payment as it seems unjust to make her responsible for delays in the system. 

Any thoughts on how to proceed with this as it seems to be a simple fix but no one seems capable of at the very least just stopping the clock  

building_with_lego

I'd advise her to contact the Student Finance department at her university, outline the situation and requesting they contact the Student Loans Company to rectify the situation. If her university has a Student Money Advice team she can copy them in, and I'd also suggest copying in the Students' Union Advice Team.

You're right, this is a simple fix. Her uni will simply backdate the suspension date and correct that with SLC. (It doesn't take 7-10 days, they're covering their backsides there, although you can also consider that 7-10 days' interest on one payment is a drop in the ocean of the overall total repayable.)

If she hasn't already, and she suspended in-year, she needs to protect her gift year. Her Student Money Advice team can help her do that.