Student loan court threat - help!

snoph

1st post on MSE, but use it regularly, gratefully, to save money for both myself and my partner. I am writing on behalf of my partner, as I really really want to help him out of a sticky situation, and don't know where to start...

Long story, will keep it brief. Student Loan Company have sent my partner a letter threatening court action if his arrears are not paid by next Friday. He has deferred payment in the past (he was a pre 1998 student) due to income being beneath the limit set. I believe he has forgotten to defer payment himself in subsequent years, but has never received any letters from SLC to ask him to do this. Now, out of the blue, due to newly moving house and being added to the electoral roll, he receives a demand for thousands of pounds.

My partner has earnt a salary just a few hundreds of pounds over the deferment threshold in the last few years, but has not completed a full 52-week employment in any of the years due to temporary roles (we've moved about a bit with my job), redundancy earlier in 2008 and long-term sickness (over a month in one case and 3 months in another case) in 2005 and 2006.

My partner was diagnosed with bipolar disorder (aka: manic depression) in 2005, and so is classable as having a mental health disorder. This led to the long-term sickness and a job loss in one case (grr...).

I believe that physically disabled people are entitled to longer repayment times - does anyone know what the deal is with those who are mentally disabled? It is classed as a mental disability by employers, after all.

My partner is back on the up with an excellent job and a good medication regime which means he is able to live his life as the rest of us are able to. We have a mortgage, and debts from his past are now gradually decreasing through regular payments. The letter from the SLC has thrown everything up in the air, upset him immensely and led to 'downers' this week - it seems so unfair when he's been doing so well! He cannot pay the full amount, and could not afford the monthly repayments on top of the mortgage and other debt repayments as his salary is barely over the threshold.

I suspect the SLC will say he should have dealt with it before, but bipolar disorder often leads to those with it ignoring debt because it is just too hard to deal with. I think this has been the case...

My questions are:-

(1) How does part-year working and sickness affect the threshold level?
(2) Does mental illness (proveable from the doctors) give an entitlement to extra help in repayments?
(3) How should he/I play this?

Anyone got a similar experience?

I have read things on forums about SLC failing to action deferments properly - can't be sure this was the case here, but may be one line of attack with it.

I intend to call them on his behalf on Monday morning at 8 am - so any generous help will be very very much appreciated and set both our minds at rest....

Snoph xxx

mouthscradle

Hi snoph, I can't offer much advice myself other than I would recommend you join the Consumer Action Group forums, where there are hundreds of people with experience of dealing with debt, and they have a Students board where people post their problems with SLC debts and repayments. There are tons of people on there who will be able to help you approach this. I'm sure someone on there will be able to advise you on your situation. The forums can be found here : http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/

Good luck, try not to worry x

snoph

Thanks! Have posted something similar onto the consumer forums. Thanks for the hint.

QuirkyChemistry

I don't really know how you stand with this and if you should be in arrears or not but I would advise looking to see if you can offer a token sum and negotiate a repayment of the arrears based on what you can afford. If you are prepared for that scenario before you phone it might be easier. Otherwise try to have all past employment and income details with you so you can explain the situation. I hope you get answers to your other questions.