ERUDIO student loans help

An update on the appeal to the Information Tribunal for the remaining withheld information in the Sale and Purchase Agreement. The appeal has now been heard and has been part allowed, although no further info is being released. There's a copy of the decision on the Information Tribunal's website here (EA/2016/0103):

http://informationrights.decisions.tribunals.gov.uk//Public/search.aspx

I can't really discuss the decision here on the forum, as there's the option to appeal to the Upper Tribunal, which I'm looking into just now.

I'm really sorry it wasn't the outcome we were hoping for, but I think it's fair to say they got a bit of a bloody nose. I wanted to say huge thanks to everyone who helped with the appeal, especially Mr McGuffin, but also GinOClock, BorderReiver, erudioed and the others who were good enough to submit personal statements and evidence to the tribunal. Without your support, I'd have given up long ago

The ONS released their latest earnings data last week and from a quick copy and paste of the figures, it looks like the deferment level will be up slightly from 1 September, to £29,219 (currently £29,126).

That's if I've used the right month's stats - pretty sure it's July data but they usually delay announcing it until mid-August.

RPI for the interest rate on our loans is up a fair bit from 1 September, to 3.1% (1.6% in 2016/17).

rbruce101 wrote: »

@erudioed, think you might find that it was CARVAL not Cargill who were the investors,
so slightly unfair that you muddy the waters with incorrect info regarding a company that has nothing to do with student loans.
so I say to you sir........you should research your facts first........and post second.
Rob.

Thanks Rob. You may by now be aware that Carval Investors recycles all Cargill's stashed cash and profits gathered by its multifarious business streams. Let me give you my own link: http://www.investopedia.com/news/cargills-plans-sell-carval-investors-fizzle/?lgl=rira-baseline-vertical

And just to ease your eyes from burning, let me pick out a few choice quotes about both these fantastic entities:

"Cargill Inc., the agricultural powerhouse company that is the largest privately-held company in the United States, has had difficulties selling off its investment branch. The firm, called CarVal Investors and worth about $10 billion, was initially put on the market in 2015, with Goldman Sachs responsible for managing the sale. Investment agencies including the Blackstone Group expressed early interest, and Cargill (and industry analysts) expected that the sale would go quickly and smoothly. In the intervening time, however, a bitter fight between Cargill and CarVal's former president has begun, and the possibilities of an easy sale seem to have disappeared.
Company-wide Meeting Leads to Turmoil

John Brice had held leadership positions within CarVal since 2008, but in 2016 a series of events led to his being fired. On June 9, 2016, Brice spoke to CarVal employees at a company-wide meeting, alluding to difficulties in CarVal's relationship with top management at Cargill, according to court documents. Just a few days later, the documents reveal, Brice was called before the Cargill board and fired, following a bitter and tense meeting. Shortly thereafter, Brice began legal proceedings against Cargill over his dismissal, alleging that the company had planned a "coordinated, secretive plot" to fire him, according to further court documents.
While the CarVal board stated that Brice's dismissal was for a number of factors, including the creation of a "demoralizing environment," Brice argued in his suit that the board had acted out of place and that its explanation of events was not well-founded."

And if you want a list of very tamely presented infractions by Cargill via the very restrained Wikipedia, here is a shot in the arm about some of the more well known environmentally destructive operations Cargill undertakes, and all for profit no less!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticisms_of_Cargill

And here is the brief area of topics discussed...and there are many many more not mentioned here:

• 1 Environmental damage
  • 1.1 Palm oil production in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea
  • 1.2 Controversy around Santar!m port and Amazon deforestation
  • 1.3 Broken wastewater pipeline in Australia
  • 1.4 Building on restorable wetlands
  • 1.5 Release of 65 million gallons of acidic water into Tampa Bay
• 2 Human rights abuses
  • 2.1 Forced child labor (Côte d'Ivoire)
  • 2.2 Uzbek cotton
• 3 Contamination
  • 3.1 Mercury poisoning in Iraq
  • 3.2 2007 beef recall (USA)
  • 3.3 Cargill Australia exports

All their profits from such destructive and horrible practices are then channelled through Carval, which can then use the money to make investments in things like student debt, helping reinforce and grow this vulture industry at an exponential rate. I can see nothing in this cycle that is of real benefit to mankind, unless its very destruction/slow decent into horribleness is a benefit that is!

There has been a freedom of information request released by the Department of Education after a copy of all correspondence between Erudio and the DfE regarding the new DAF was requested:

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/erudio_student_loans_daf?nocache=incoming-1008638#incoming-1008638

If you trawl through some of the emails between the Erudio and the DfE, it would appear to read that Erudio has formally abandoned plans to routinely report loans to CRAs or perform credit checks when carrying out deferment applications.

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/408110/response/1008825/attach/4/MacDonald%2020170028341%20Annex%20A%20ErudioDfEemail%20FOI%20July17%20FINAL.pdf

This is good news. Maybe one of the mods in the forum could get Erudio to confirm this formally/officially, together with an explanation? They seem to have kept this rather quiet.