Where do I stand, legally?
 

I'm having serious issues with the Student Finance Company at the moment.

I’m not really sure where I stand on this one – apart fromskint, and virtually homeless! I would appreciate anyone who may be able tosuggest my next port of call as I now have no idea whatsoever. Apologies forthe long post, I’m just going to tell you anything I think might be relevant. :cuckoo:

I’m currently a university student, and this year is myplacement, which basically means I’m taking a year in industry to gain someexperience before finishing my degree.

I’ve been having major issues with the student loanscompany. The long and short of it is that they withheld £2900 from me duringthe last academic year (my second year of studying) as I apparently haddocumentation missing from my account regarding my parental income (this is howthey judge how much support you’re allowed) I supplied them with the royal mailtracking numbers which proved that my evidence had been delivered, to whichthey just said I still can’t prove what was in them and it may not have beenthe evidence they requested.

From this point they wanted copies of this again, originalcopies may I add. Now this is difficult as my parents live abroad at the momentso getting wet signatures on documents is time consuming, and as I had alreadypaid the accountant to produce me a letter, I would have to pay again foranother.

When on the phone to student finance, you are not allowed tospeak to other departments, and they will not give you the names of a managerto address any correspondence to.

To cut a very, very long story short. They admitted over thephone that they made a mistake and lost one of the documents. It got looked atthe same day, and I was told that I just needed to supply one more piece ofevidence – a letter from HMRC with my mother’s national insurance number.

I got the document the same morning I was told this, and gotit sent recorded delivery and it arrived at 07:14 the next morning. I phonedstudent finance at lunch time to see if I could get this entire issue resolvednow they had what they needed. I was told that it was currently a 10-14 dayqueue to process the post and scan it onto their system, and there was nothing Icould do what so ever! I struggle to believe they can run a company with thesesort of timescales but as there was nothing I could do, I just carried onputting in all the overtime I could to afford to live (already working 7 days aweek, about 65hours(ish). After 11 days it had been put on the system. Anotherbarrier was then put up, and I was told that the assessors would take 7-10working days to get round to it (based on the day it was scanned , and theircurrent workload).

I argued my point over the phone to try and get this hurriedup, and after 2 days of going back and forth, it got passed over the ‘resolutionteam’

Shortly after, I received an email from the resolution team,apologising for my situation, and saying that they would transfer what I wasowed within 7 days. At this point I finally though that all of this might besorted. My rent at this point was just over a month late as my landlord hadbeen very forgiving and I kept him up to date with student finance. Luckily,having many student houses, he understood that I wasn’t just being awkward withmoney, but that my rent money comes from student finance, and that I couldn’tpay him until I had been paid.

All throughout this process I had been assured over thephone by many people that I WILL be getting the money, and that I should justkeep telling my landlord that it was all sorted, and I was just waiting for themto sort out the finer points.

The 7 days that I was meant to get paid in had now passedand I had still not received anything. I called back to be told that they arestill sorting it and I was 100% getting the money transferred soon. If I neededto hold the landlord off any more, then he could phone them and they could giveverbal conformation that I was entitled to this money, and it was coming soon. That’show confident they were that it was that it was sorted – they gave their wordthat it was being transferred soon.

Unfortunately the landlord was not happy with this as I hadbeen continuously telling him “just 5 more days”, “just another 7 working days”etc etc. I now had the option of paying cash, or getting out. I was forced toborrow the money from a family member – on the basis that I had verbalagreement from Student finance the money was on its way – therefore my sisterknew 100% that I would be able to pay her back.

I’ve now been told, that I’m not getting a penny as mysituation in my first year and second year are different, and so I can’t be assessedin this way (They call it means tested, as opposed to non means tested).

I’ve spoken to a manager and explained how many times I hadbeen given verbal conformation that I was getting the money, by whom, and onwhat dates. The manager dismissed this saying that the notes on my account donot say this - even though my own personal notes do.

I’m currently waiting for all of my phone recordings fromtheir call centre as this is the only way I can prove what they’ve told me –that I’m getting the money.
If you’ve read this far, thanks for taking the time to doso! :thumb:
My question now is, are they liable to keep their word? I’vetaken out borrowing based on what they’ve said, which at the moment isn’t goingto cost me (luckily) but I do have to pay it back. The £2900 they ‘said’ they owedme at the start, I’ve taken into account with organising the rest of myfinances and I need that to pay my next two rent instalments for the year. Whatcan I do now? They’ve basically just disregarded everything I’ve said, andbacktracked on what I’ve been told. Is there any legal obligation that theycommit to by telling me something?
Regards,
Scott. :thumb:

Can you seek advice from student welfare or the equivalent that your institution offers?

Quick thought. Can your parents afford to wire you some money to pay the landlord?

Student Finance are a nightmare. I have fought many a battle on behalf of my kids.

David

That was my first thought.
Not sure where you can go on this really.

Have you got nothing in writting from them to back up what you are saying?

Parents do not have a single penny I'm affriad. I have nothing in writing just verbal conformation - I'm waiting for telephone recordings of what I've been told. Conversations have been as firm as:

me: are you 100% I'll be getting this money now you've got the docuements?
SF: yes, deffinately
me: so I can tell the landlord, set in stone?
SF: yes, we can even speak to him for you to confirm you are getting the money

does it get any more certain than that? There's litterally nothing else I can think to do.


Scott.

My son's case was very simple, we thought. We submitted the first set of data just to get the ball rolling and obtain the tuition fees and non means tested maintanance. We then tried to submit the data required to confirm the means tested component, and that turned into a real nightmare. Because everything is on-line they seem to have difficulty linking things up after the event.

Anyway its only a loan. If you get a smaller loan then you have less to pay back later :)

The raison d'etre of SFE is to provide loans, and they are part of the government. Therefore if you satisfy the conditions for receiving a loan then I would say they are obliged to provide the money. Those fundamentals are not affected by the communication problems you are having.

So what are the grounds for saying you will get nothing? Presumably you get no tuition fees for Y2? Do you have any documentation from Y0 saying that you would get support in Y2?

TBH I would imagine that there is a better student oriented forum to resolve these issues, and definitely contact your student Union, even though you may not be local now.

I am sorry to hear about those problems.

For some time now I have always sent anything as important as that by post it always goes as registered post and I make sure I keep the certificate of posting. That way it is less likely to get lost in the post and also it has to be signed for when it arrives.

That way you are pretty well covered as far as them getting the information is concerned.

Les

Agree with you Les, but like so many govt. requirements now, they would prefer the transaction to be undertaken on line, in which case proof of posting is not available :(