Student Finance Direct has Messed me around!

nearlyrich

starlite wrote:

surely they should be writing to your children and not you? the loans are in their names after all!?

I think they will write to the "children" but my gripe is that I pay the fees but they have completely ignored this and written to "the man of the house".

starlite_2

Hmmm...maybe it was just him they had a probem with the details of? i can't think of any other explanation

braken2000

at least im not the only one. Most of the people do not seem to care at my LEA. Im just worried that this little ''hicups'' are goin to put my application back, but apparently not, we'll soon see. Hope all goes all right.

Savvy_Sue

nearlyrich wrote:

My two children will both be at uni this September, one continuing into year 2 and one just starting, I took the forms along with the P60's etc into the LEA office on the last day before the deadline. My husband (who is my children's stepfather) has had a letter with a login code etc but no-one else has had anything yet. I called to ask why they were writing to my husband when they are my children and they said that I would be getting a letter too, but almost three weeks later and nothing has arrived so in addition to being slow are they are also sexist ? The form was filled in with my details first so I expected them to write to me, the ultimate is they won't tell me if I have to pay fees as it isn't any of my business apparantly...funny the money comes out of my bank account.

We had a letter each, sent in separate envelopes, to the same address, arriving on the same day, just like the Tax Credits people do. Giving each of us a login code so we could check the progress of our son's application. What they said to you sounds weird!

Anyway, son now has the notification of grant, not getting anything towards his tuition fees but I've told him he's got more money than we have so he can sort it out if he wouldn't mind. He's OK with this, doesn't even feel hard done by when I said we might try to help little brother more than him in due course, because little bro will have top-up fees to worry about. What a nice lad!

nearlyrich

I still haven't had any correspondence and neither have either of my children, might give them another ring.

Savvy_Sue

nearlyrich wrote:

I still haven't had any correspondence and neither have either of my children, might give them another ring.

Yes, probably worth doing, the day after DS had his letter saying "We're not paying your fees, give your parents a copy of this letter" we again got separate letters saying "We've written to your son, he's supposed to tell you what you're expected to give him."

For crying out loud, we told them what our income was, why not just give us the same information as they give him? Why does it have to be so complicated?

Bennifred

We parents didn't receive any letter from the Student Finance people - only son got one, saying he should inform us of the outcome. It was just as well as I was around when he opened it - might never have known otherwise There really should be a more coherent way of handling all of this stuff! They make it much more complicated than it needs to be IMHO.

stuwilky

Ive had my loan and grant payment schedule this morning. But in their wisdom Lancashire LEA have decided not to assess any childcare grant payments until next week, so they will not be paid until at the earliest the beginning of October, and I have a full terms fees to pay on the 19th Sept.

Cheers Lancashire CC.

(sorry had to get that off my chest!)

gavhen

another story of joy over here too!!

i sent in my online application on the 28th april - the first day it was possible to do so. i hadnt heard anything from them except a letter from the LEA dated the 1st july asking for proof of id and sign a declaration, which of course i sorted out. the website has always stated that the application was received and being processed, it was only coming on here and finding out that people have received their payment details that i decided to check.

i was told today by manchester LEA that my application was late as it was only received on the 2nd august so i wouldnt likely get anything till after september!!! i asked how it could take 4 months to reach them from my computer to which they replied it was student finance direct's fault. so i phoned student finance direct, and they washed their hands of it saying that i must have posted it to the wrong people. i tried to point out that i didnt sent it to anyone, except them online, she insisted that this wasnt possible as i have to post it to my LEA and it cant be sent online!!!

it didnt much point continuing to talk to someone who doesnt even know their own available systems so i phoned back the LEA, especially as since in my rage around the house i had come across the july dated letter. i asked how if they hadnt received my application till august they could send me a letter on the 1st of july regarding it. i also pointed out that if i apply online and it requires me to sign a declaration before it is processed, how am i able to return it before the 1st july deadline if its not posted to me before the 1st july.

the end result is that they couldnt answer these questions and said that it must have somehow been datestamped incorrectly (over 3 months incorrectly!!). they will now be processing it next week once they have located my form - why do i still not have any confidence that this will actually happen??

i am a mature student, i have no income when i start uni, and i am relying on my fees being paid and a full student loan otherwise i could be in deep s**t. thanks manchester LEA for making my life a bit more complicated just when i dont need it to be.

(my rant over now..... and it does feel good!!)

gavhen

re:above post

feel it only fair to mention that once i'd managed to pull manchester lea's finger out of their lower region they sorted it all and sent my loan/grant details through within 5 days. huge amounts of relief over here, now i've got to tell them that im changing my bank details - think ill wait till after ive had the first payments