confused about student loans

NEH

I left university last December due to illness. I was informed at the time by the student loan company that my debt stood at approx £1050. I am not currently paying it back as i am not working and on benefits have been for years due to a long term illness. I am on a training course at the moment and hope to work part time come Sep/Oct when i expect to finish the course depending on my health. I know that my chances of doing full time work are slim but you never know. Anyway i got a statement this afternoon from them and it with all the interest payments that i have been paying since i started and up to today it has obviously gone up but the part i dont understand is i am charged a tution fee in February is this the tuition fee for September? I will be ringing them tomorrow to find out but wondered if someone may have some insight into what this could be. I am alredy paying the company £5 per month to pay off an overpayment so they have been good to let me pay at that rate but i am just so baffled by the system and could do with someone explaining things to me in idiot speak if possible.

Thanks in advance

dannynixon

I have very little faith in SLC. They are very unorganised. If you are sure that you do not owe it then I suspect it is an error on their behalf.

Ring them and they will tell you what's what.

Good luck

CLAPTON

what was your agreement with the uni about leaving your course... did they agree to waiver part or all of the year's tuition fee?
Have SLC been told of that agreement?

dannynixon

I partly agree with Clapton. I think that SLC have not been informed or they have been and simply made a clerical error.

NEH

Thanks guys. I didnt know you had to make an agreement. I was told by the university to put it in writing that i was leaving and that was it. I did that and then spoke to the slc who informed me how much i still owed. I was told by the slc that because i left due to illness that they may be able to write off the over payment however when i rang back about this they told me i had been informed incorrectly. Well i'm off to ring them i'll let you know how i get on....

NEH

Apparently there should have been a reassessment but that didnt take place. Turns out it is down to the university. I left before Dec 1 but they have my leaving date recorded as 7th December therefore i pay a full years tuition fee. I have asked them to relook at this date and check my attendance records as i acutally last attended the university earlier on in November. We''ll see what happens but i was informed by slc that the amount i now owe is £2800 and something.....I have had problems with the university acknowledging that i left when i did, i sent a letter to them at the end of novemeber but they didnt comfirm i had left until the end of January when i was informed i had left on the 7th December. I have had to chase up a few things with the university, seems to be something you have to do now a days.

NEH

Thanks once again guys for your help after several phonecalls etc i have now sorted this, the university were willing to put back the leaving date which is very gracious of them considering that the last time i attended university once they checked their records was actually a month before their leaving date interpretation.