Daughter withdrawn from course - need help due to SLC overpayment

EmmaSalmon66

My daughter was in her final year of university. She received the full student loan, plus an enhanced rate as she got DSA.

She also got a tiny amount of Universal credit, as she also gets LCWRA due to her multiple illnesses.

Unfortunately this year her health deteriorated badly - she spent 4 weeks of the autumn term in bed, struggled to get work done, and wasnt really well enough by the time she tried to go back for the Spring term. She has a complex mix of a longterm physical progressive disability, MH/anxiety and ASD/ADHD and chronic fatigue due to having septic shock/sepsis twice in two years.

In May she decided that she needed to leave the university and due to the course not being run in the future, she wont be resuming.

She informed her college, who informed Student Loan company, and she has had a letter from them saying she owes them £1330 from overpaid loan from the Spring term.

They rang her up and tried to get her to agree to repay them at £300 a month, which is obviously ridiculous - she did tell them she was not going to be able to pay that, and also that she would only be on universal credit/LCWRA.

Has anyone negotiated with them about repayment plans - they did offer a little lower, but then they started interrogating her about what her income was, what her outgoings were and telling her she needed to tell them everything she spent, which sent her into a total spiral of panic.

She says they've told her she has 2 weeks to provide her proof of every expendature she has or they will just start taking the money.

having been round the block a few times I did say that its unlikely to be a legaly binding demand to show them everything on her bank account, but that she can bargain with them for a repayment - they will need to take into account that she is unwell and wont be working. I am also going to need to take her to the job centre, because they always mess up the calculations and she is already paying back an overpayment by them when they forgot she was going back to uni in September (as she is LCWRA she has no work coach, so it appears to be just luck if they read the messages in her journal)

I would be interested if anyone has negotiated a repayment, and how low we can go with offering to them, and if we really need to do the budget for them, or if the fact she is on UC should be enough for them to back off a bit?

Worried_fool

I negotiated a payment plan with them… as soon as I confirmed that I was unwaged, they became very reasonable and in fact agreed to the monthly payment I suggested.

Anyway, it does no harm to provide them with a basic budget and use that to propose a realistic figure. I don't think it is necessary to go into a great deal of detail.

My experience began when I telephoned them: perhaps that gave me a more helpful agent than the debt-collector who called you.

itsthelittlethings

I would try to get an attendance report from the university to confirm that she did attend in the spring term. Perhaps a letter from a tutor. Did she pay fees for the spring term?

itsthelittlethings

Personally I’d send them 3 months bank statements but that’s just me.

itsthelittlethings

When I dropped out of my masters the university wanted me to pay some more fees. It took the last of my savings but they were very reasonable about it.

EmmaSalmon66

she attended some of the spring term, up until 23rd March. So I believe that it is a proportion of the Spring loan payment which would have covered her up until the start of the summer term. It doesnt say if any of it is fees, unless that will come later.

I will get her to try to fill in some of the form, but she just goes into a complete meltdown panic at the thought of it (she has PDA, which is an anxiety driven subset of autism demand avoidance.) and she is sick again with her cystic fibrosis, so tolerance level for doing anything is pretty low.

Just out of interest Worried_fool; - how much did they agree to fgor a monthly payment? Its possible that they were reasonable and that she just panicked and spiralled when they spoke to her. They did send the budget form after all