UC underpaid me each month? Student loan?

Snootydoor

I made a new claim for universal credit ten months ago (I had previously claimed a few years ago but stopped the claim as I went back work) I had always had "limited capability for work" assessed years ago which was also on my new claim from the start ten months ago.

I started uni two years ago, and for the last year my student loan had "special support grant" which meant it should not have been deducted from my universal credit.

However for the last 10 months, 500 pounds was taken from the amount UC paid me each month. (which they shouldn't have, as it was exempt due to the student support grant. I only noticed after speaking to a student finance advisor who said that shouldn't be happening. 

I have emailed them with proof of the tuition loan, the question is: is this something they will backdate and pay me the money that was taken each month, incorrectly?

Thank you for reading, please let me know if you need me to clarify anything 

8dayweek

Having the special support element within your Maintenance Loan does not mean you won’t have a deduction for Student Finance - it just means that part of the Maintenance Loan is disregarded when calculating the deduction. 

Tuition Fee loan is not counted. UC won’t need that - you need to provide them with the breakdown of how your Maintenance Loan is calculated (not the payment schedule, the actual page with each component of the Maintenance Loan). 

huckster

Given that that the full maximum maintenance loan is £9978.  If UC had not allowed for any grants to be deducted for and only applied £110 deduction per UC assessment period, then by my calculation UC would be deducting £887.80 per UC assessment period.  This is based on UC deducting for student maintenance over 10 UC assessment periods.   

If only £500 is being deducted per UC assessment period, this suggests that UC were aware of the special support element and have allowed for it in their deduction calculation.

But as the last comment suggests, contact UC by sending a journal message querying payment.  Ask them for a breakdown of the student maintenance related deduction being applied to your UC claim.

Snootydoor

huckster said:

Given that that the full maximum maintenance loan is £9978.  If UC had not allowed for any grants to be deducted for and only applied £110 deduction per UC assessment period, then by my calculation UC would be deducting £887.80 per UC assessment period.  This is based on UC deducting for student maintenance over 10 UC assessment periods.   

If only £500 is being deducted per UC assessment period, this suggests that UC were aware of the special support element and have allowed for it in their deduction calculation.

But as the last comment suggests, contact UC by sending a journal message querying payment.  Ask them for a breakdown of the student maintenance related deduction being applied to your UC claim.

Sorry, the total is 6000 and the grant was 4500 - I think I calculated it as 166 should have been deducted a month.

My fault I should have put he amounts in the details 

Basically what I'm asking is, as they have taken too much (and I know this) is it likely that it will be backdated?

Sorry for my confusing post, I should have added more detail 

Snootydoor

Maintenance Loan was for 6000, grant for 4500 so only 1500 should have been deductible money etc (I'm classed as a part time student) 

Snootydoor

8dayweek said:

Having the special support element within your Maintenance Loan does not mean you won’t have a deduction for Student Finance - it just means that part of the Maintenance Loan is disregarded when calculating the deduction. 

Tuition Fee loan is not counted. UC won’t need that - you need to provide them with the breakdown of how your Maintenance Loan is calculated (not the payment schedule, the actual page with each component of the Maintenance Loan). 

That's it, I have provided them that, but they took too much as the maintenence loan was for 1500 and grant was 4500 - so them taking 500 a month was too much

What I meant to ask more clearly, sorry for my context here, was: if the amount they have taken was too much (as they included the grant in their calculations) will I get that backdated? Thank you and sorry for not including more details initially 

huckster

Did you take a maintenance amount of £1500, when it was less than the maximum you could have taken out?

UC will take into account maximum maintenance loan that was available to you.

Snootydoor

huckster said:

Did you take a maintenance amount of £1500, when it was less than the maximum you could have taken out?

UC will take into account maximum maintenance loan that was available to you.

No this was the maximum it's the maximum for part time students.

There's nothing I did wrong, I even asked at the time but was ignored, so essentially they underpaid (and have been shown to have, everything considered)

What I'm asking is if they've made that mistake, will they backdate it? Or just turn me away, if they do turn me away, do I appeal it or something?

Thank you for your time! Hope you're having a great day 

huckster

Probably best way to resolve is visit your local Job Centre with all of the information required to arrange review of student finance deduction. They will need copy of student finance England document and copy of the University course letter with details of the part-time course.  

What has happened it appears, is that you have been treated as being eligible for full time student finance maintenance loans. So you need to show evidence course is part-time so only eligible for a lower loan amount.

Once a correction has been applied, then a backdate underpayment should be calculated.