Apparently my parents underestimated their pay now I'm losing out?

ChloePerky · 6 July 2019 at 1:21PM

Hi, so I've looked all over the Internet for help with this and I figured this is the best place to come, I've reapplied for my student loan for my second year of uni and my maintenence is very low compared to the first year... A bit of background first, my dad had a heart attack the years required therefore had to fill out the 18/19 tax year instead off the 17/18 one as he was off work for about a year and a half and got very little sick pay and my mam works two part time jobs therfore she also earns very little, now my dad has gone back to work part time and when I enquired about how my maintenence this year was so low compared to last year this is what I recieved. The part I don't get is my maintence went up by 1k in September just before I started university, now they're saying they've overpaid me and are going to take it off this year's loan which I will struggle on as it is so low, therefore surely the fault lies within the person who processed my application as my parents gave all the evidence required both times and even had to fill out multiple forms throughout the year.

Your parents sent us financial evidence recently. The evidence shows that
their income is higher than the estimated income figures they gave us.

What this means for you
You've been paid more student finance than you should've been.

What you need to do
You don't need to do anything now. We may try to recover your overpayment
automatically from payments made to you in this or other academic years,
except for 2017/18. If you still have an overpayment when you finish or
leave your course we'll contact you about affordable repayment.

This is what I received from a helpline too:
It looks like your parents slightly underestimated they'd receive in the 18/19 tax year. Based on this evidence they sent us, this is correct. You can choose to pay this back now if you can: but otherwise this will be automatically deducted from your 19/20 entitlement.

Has anybody else been through something similar or know what I could do in this situation?

[Deleted User] · 7 July 2019 at 7:53AM

Not much. They're unlikely to agree to a repayment plan over a longer period as they can take it off your next payment.

You either repay it now, or have it deducted from the next payment.

tacpot12 · 7 July 2019 at 9:15AM

You might get a job so that the reduced student loan doesn't mean you can't afford to live.

silvercar · 7 July 2019 at 10:08AM

Check with your parents that they filled in all the forms correctly, it could be a simple mistake on their part. In particular check that the correct years figures have been used. If they used 18/19 for the first year due to a drop in income, then they would use 18/19 again for the following year. So the maintenance component should be about the same.

Though if they estimated 18/19 and your father did in fact earn more than first thought, then the recalculation is fair.

If the figures are correct, then you need a conversation with your parents. If their income is higher than they thought it would be then the amount the government expects your parents to be able to help you out is more than first thought and they may feel they should help you with this.

sheramber · 8 July 2019 at 6:43PM

if your parents underestimated their income then you received more funding than you should. X+ excess amount

So you will have a sum of money to pay back. - excess amount
the
Also as the maintenance loan due this year will be the lower correct figure - X amount only- so less than last year when you received X + excess amount but as you also have an overpayment to pay back the maintenance loan is further reduced to recover that money.
So you now receive X- overpaid amount.

The only way to avoid the further reduction is to pay back the overpaid amount in a lump sum now. Then you would receive the lower, correct figure of maintenance loan.- X

Apparently my parents underestimated their pay now I'm losing out?

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