Hello everyone. I'm getting anxious about my currently deferred student loan and seeking some advice/guidance/reassurance, please. I have four mortgage style student loans from the early 90s and as I’ve beenbelow the threshold I have been deferring them; every year since I graduated. It’s all been pretty straight forward and deferment granted promptly. Last year’s deferment letter from Honours Student Loans(and maybe several before that) said, if memory serves, I was in breach of theloan T&Cs as I no longer have a direct debit in place. It must have ‘timedout’, as I’m sure there used to be one. As I’m now within a few years of my loan being written off I’m keen not to do anything that could be used against me by placing me in breach of the T&Cs and put me in arrears during my final few years. I’m winding myself up by reading the entire internet on whether the T&Cs actually state I must have an active direct debit inplace, even if I’m currently in deferment. So my questions is, when I receive my next deferment letter should I give them my bank account details, or even call them to provide them now, or shouldn’t I? On the subject of the deferment paperwork – have HSL changed it this year (2018)? Will my paperwork be different in 2019? If so, should I approach it differently? The next issue is difficult for me, as I think I may have been filling the deferment form out incorrectly. I haven’t been including Child Tax Credits as income as the advice I received at the time was that it didn’t count as taxable income and therefore didn’t need to be included on the form. But now I’m reading that I should have been declaring it? If so, then would your advice be to start putting it on the form from next year? The tax credits would place me close to, but I think still under, the threshold. As I haven’t been declaring child tax credits and probably should have been, would this be grounds for me to be regarded as in breach of the T&Cs and effect future deferment/write-off? If I should declare it, do I need to declare 100% or canI declare 50% as it’s in joint names with my wife and her income doesn’t count? Many thanks for your help.

Hi I wonder if anyone can advise. Before Xmas we ordered a sofa from HSL. We knew it would be around four weeks delivery time. Not to bothered about that but HSL didn't tell us that they would be using a logistics company to deliver. First contact from the logistics firm was about two weeks after we ordered and we were given a date for delivery this month. The evening before it was due to be delivered the company's customer services rang to give us a time. This was fine as we would be able to get our lounge ready for them. We got told that the sofa would get brought between 8am and noon. So you can imagine the shock we got when the delivery men turned up at 7.25am while it was still quite dark. 'No they couldn't wait because they where off to Blackpool next' we ended up being quite flustered and had to let them deliver the sofa. Now it seems that in their hurry to get the sofa in they forced it through a doorway without caring if anything got damaged. Got my husband to sign for it and scarpered as quick as they could. He didn't get chance to read what he was signing or even check the sofa over first. Now we realize that both the door and the sofa have been damaged. I tried to contact HSL on the same day using their online form but with no luck. What should we do next? We cannot afford to waste our money like this as we are both disabled. This sofa was a special treat for ourselves. Thanks Sheila

HSL Chairs market mainly to the elderly, the shops are friendly , staff all teddy bear types, furniture delivered promptly. Where is the snag? Have a problem and the image crumbles. Given that delivery is four weeks on new goods it took us five weeks of constant calls and hassle to get a faulty chair repaired. They refused to replace this chair despite a serious fault appearing after only one day. No one came out to inspect. The shop staff passed our complaint to the factory who did call and make promises to do something then totally ignored us. The usual runaround begun, telling us one thing and a different person then telling us something else. They do not return phone calls and totally ignore emails . Repairs were eventually done but after a couple of weeks the fault is gradually reappearing. How they could judge what repairs were required without inspection is a mystery. No follow up to check if all OK. Elderly folk generally don't make a fuss and are often unwell and reluctant to complain too much due to the stress and upset. I reckon they play on this as most will just eventually give up and be held to have accepted the goods by default. A little research shows that a lot of HSL furniture is in fact made by Celebrity Furniture where the same models are sold under different names at about 25% less. So save your Grandparents a few quid and a load of stress by letting them know this. HSL make a lot of fuss about their service both in shops and on the net. Just hot air .Furniture retailers? Why am I surprised. Any suggestions welcome.