MSE News: Student loan deferment forms missing in latest Erudio blunder

Legacy_user · 6 April 2016 at 12:50PM

Embattled student loans administrator Erudio has failed to provide deferment application forms to thousands of graduates...

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'Student loan deferment forms missing in latest Erudio blunder'

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afoolandhermoney · 6 April 2016 at 1:38PM

Have Erudio changed the deferment date or are there different dates through the year that they are valid til? Hubby has one of these loans and his current deferment letter says its valid til 19th September and he doesn't normally get a form until June anyway

erudioed · 6 April 2016 at 1:41PM

Erudio's apology stated :"We have identified a number of our customers received their Deferment Application packs in March, which unfortunately, did not include all the relevant paperwork. In some cases, this included the deferment forms themselves. As a result of this, at a later date some customers were sent reminders having not previously received relevant documentation."
Erudio further stated this to try and instill coinfidence in how it identified the above problem: "To resolve this issue and ensure it does not happen again, we have performed a thorough review of our procedures, identified the issue, concluded that it was an isolated incident and have put additional measures in place to ensure it is not repeated."

Erudio were forced to apologise yesterday because many students (now noted to be 10% of all its 'customers' in this isolated incident, an isolated incident that saw the DAFs not arriving until 5 weeks before the deadline last year as well) didnt get a DAF pack at all. That is breaking the sales and purchase agreement Erudio signed with The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, where Erudio agreed to send out the DAFs 'no less that 8 weeks' before the deadline. This Erudio apology yesterday suggests they identified that the problem was missing DAFs in the deferment pack. But, they have misrepresented the nature of the problem. They are unwilling to admit that they just didnt send the DAFs out. Which i would assume means they will be open to compensation claims, and then Ombudsman complaints. Not one person has complained to me or written on the forum yet of this problem that Erudio admits to.
Erudio is yet to A) identify the problem that sparked this whole issue or apologise for deliberately not sending out the DAFs for the 2nd consecutive year at this time of year. As such, and taking into account i think the people controlling Erudio are very clever, with its lawyers and such, they have deliberately misled all of its customers, Callum the journalist of the above article, and anybody else on the planet who has an interest in trying to understand this years DAFgate.
Erudio may stick to the story of DAF packs being sent out minus DAFs, but Erudio does look rather stupid admitting to a problem that no one has actually complained about. If "Building strong ties with our customers and treating them fairly is really important to us." is true, as Erudio stated in yesterdays apology, they certainly have a strange way going about it. So far, all they have done is misrepresent (or using plain English 'lie' because they know exactly what they have tried to do but unsuccessfully after being rumbled) the nature of the actual problem, which to me is treating its customers and everyone else trying to get an answer with 'contempt', not 'fairly'.
Treating them 'fairly' would be coming clean and admitting they didnt send the DAFs out and offering some form of compensation for deliberately trying catch out its 'customers'! That isnt an opinion, it is a fact.

kathrynha · 6 April 2016 at 2:05PM

My forms were late the other year, so they moved my deferment date from April to May. Need to chase them again this year, as I haven't received this years form yet, and we are within 8 weeks.

FuriousFeline · 6 April 2016 at 2:57PM

I finally received a DAF in today's post. However, the letter which accompanies it does not mention anything about the end of my current deferment period being extended to compensate for the form being received late, so I have now put in a complaint to Erudio. I won't believe I have been granted an extension until I see it in writing.

FuriousFeline · 8 April 2016 at 11:14AM

Emma Lunn's article about the Erudio shambles has just been published in The Guardian.

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/apr/08/student-loans-firm-erudio-leaves-graduates-fuming-over-latest-error

MAMc01 · 8 April 2016 at 11:36PM

I received a letter dated 24th March telling me my DAF would be arriving shortly, followed by a letter dated 30th March reminding me that they had not received my DAF yet. It was only after this that I started looking online and found out about the whole DAFgate thing.

Today, 8th April, I received my DAF with the standard cover letter, dated 25th March. It's as if it just got lost in the post! If it was in fact sent out late, Erudio are behaving in a very underhand way and I am not impressed. I will get my form back to them before the deadline, but my nerves are shot until I receive that "deferment accepted" letter.

Michelle

FuriousFeline · 9 April 2016 at 11:30AM

Erudio are supposed to send out DAFs so that we receive them 8 weeks before our current deferment period is due to end. In the News section of Erudio's website, they claim that the deferment period end dates of those affected will be extended so that they have 56 days in which to get their DAFs back. However, as I said to Erudio in a complaint I put in the other day, we need our new deferment end dates confirmed in writing. If they do not do this, it is unlikely our forms will have been processed by the current end dates, meaning Erudio will try and collect money from us the day after. You might want to read (and join) the discussion here. http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=4923210&highlight=erudio&page=263

clairet707 · 13 April 2016 at 9:41AM

Im one affected by a lack of forms, however my new salary takes me just over the threshold so am having to start paying mine back now. First time since 2003...

Will be so glad when I can get rid of this shoddy company

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MSE News: Student loan deferment forms missing in latest Erudio blunder

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