Advice needed about deferment and potential loan cancellation dates

Hi,

I took out 3 student loans in 1997, 1998 and 2000. I have never reached the threshold for repayment and have deferred the loans ever since. A few years ago the loan I took out in 1997 was sold off to Thesis, and the other 2 were sold off to Erudio. I had no problem deferring repayments until this year.

I received my deferment form from the SLC at the end of January. I filled it out and returned it the next day. On February 22nd I received a letter saying that my application for deferment had been accepted, however the letter only mentions the Thesis loan, not the 2 Erudio ones - something I missed until later.

Last Friday I received a letter from Erudio saying that they had not received my application for deferment and that my current deferment period ends on April 19th.

I phoned the SLC and they told me that I needed to contact Erudio. I phoned Erudio and they said that they had not received anything from the SLC regarding my deferment. The chap I spoke to said that he would contact them, but it could take up to 28 working days for them to respond and by then, my current deferment period may have ended. He told me not to worry if that happened, however, I am obviously worried because I couldn't seem to get a clear answer from anyone about what exactly is going to happen.

I live on a combination of ESA and DLA and am not able to work currently, so I definitely fulfil the criteria for deferment due to low income.

So my first question is, what should I do about this deferment situation? I'm concerned that if I sit back and wait for Erudio and the SLC to communicate with each other, Erudio will end up trying to take money from my account, or they'll claim that I'm in arrears or whatever.

Secondly, at what point are my loans eligible to cancelled? I read that for loans taken out in 1997 or before, if you were under 40 at the time (which I was), the loan can be cancelled once you reach 50 or 25 years after the repayments first become due. Is this true? Also, what about the other 2 loans? As they were taken out after 1997, are they treated differently?

Many thanks for any advice you can give me!