Student Loan Company Cancelled my Refund - help!

Tidey1

Wondered if anyone had any advice on how to solve this issue, I thought I would check to see if I was due a Student Loan refund as I could see others claiming. I filled in the form and received an email saying that I was successful and that I had to make sure that I understood what would happen with my loan following the refund, then if happy I could put the request in to release the funds to my account. I had an email a couple of days later saying that the funds would be in my account within 3-5 working days. I checked my account today and nothing had been added and the 5 days were up.
I phoned to find out more information and I was told after being on hold for 40 minutes that the refund had been cancelled. As the refund notification was sent in error!!!! I had an unexpected bill last week linked to my car and when I had the news that this was coming my way, I had a huge sigh of relief and thought that my issues and worries had been resolved. Now, I have nothing coming my way due to their error. If I had been told this in the first place I would have moved on but to be told it would be in my account and then thinking that my issues had been solved is cruel.
I phoned them up and wanted to make a complaint but was told that a complaint won't make the money appear in my account and they basically said to not bother. I insisted that I still wanted to make the complaint as this has really upset me, thinking that an issue had been solved and now I'm back to worry and dread. To promise something and then think it's ok to say sorry it's not happening, is just not good enough. I am awaiting a call from the call handler's manager in hope that they have empathy towards my situation. Any advice would be greatly recieved though.

silvercar

Hi and welcome to the forum. I'll move this thread to the student board that can be found here - https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/categories/student-money-saving

silvercar

Unfortunately, if wrong advice is given, they won't honour the wrong advice. So if you are not entitled to the refund you won't get it.

The general rule is that once you cross the repayment threshold, you aren't entitled to any refund of correct payments made during the year. However, if your total income for the year is under the threshold you can apply for a repayment made for any months where your income took you over the monthly threshold. This generally applies when someone has back pay or overtime or bonuses in one month but doesn't earn enough to be over the threshold for the year.

The reason the slc check you understand  the repercussions of a repayment is that the money is still owed. This can mean that repayments start up again after they have stopped (if you have completed repaying your loan for example). Also, that interest will again be charged on the amount refunded to you.