Student Loans are wrong again!

[reallymadwoman]

No advice needed, but thought this might help someone else.

 

My daughter attended university for the year 2009/10. At the end of her first year she decided, for a number of reasons, not to return, and advised the university at the start of the second year.

 

In February 2011, completely out of the blue, she got a letter from Student Loans stating that she owed over £800 as she had withdrawn from her course. Since she had completed the first year we believed this was wrong, and thus started the letter ping pong trying to get SLC to listen.

 

After 4 months we finally got to someone who actually read our letters, however this person quoted a regulation in support of his assertion that the money was owed which was completely irrelevant (it referred to students who did not even start the course), and quoted it in such away that it was entirely misleading, by missing out the qualification about having not started the course. If I hadn't checked the full version myself, online, then we would have given up and paid up.

 

In the meantime my daughter had started a part-time course but was refused a grant because of the outstanding arrears.

 

What must have been a deliberate attempt to mislead us was the final straw, and we asked for the file to be passed to the independent assessor. Three reminders later, we get a letter from SLC maintaining that they are right and asking if we want the case passed to the independent assessor. Do they actually employ anyone who can read?

 

Anyway, the independent assessor took just 2 weeks to consider the file and send us her decision. My daughter owes nothing, even though retrospective grant applications cannot be made they were told to make sure she got her full grant for last year and this year, and we got £50 for 14 months of trouble.

 

The moral is, if you're sure you're right DO NOT GIVE UP. We were tempted so many times - the new course had been paid for and it was just such a hassle to get them to reply to anything, but I'm so glad we didn't. When the cheque arrived yesterday for two lots of course fees plus the additional grant for books etc we were dancing round the dining room table.

 

Yes the £50 is derisory - it certainly wouldn't begin to cover the time I've had to spend on this - but it's the victory that's important. And for student loans' benefit, if they'd accepted their mistake early on we'd have been happy for the arrears to be removed and would have left it at that without insisting that we got course fees etc refunded.

 

And yes, she is taking me out for a meal to say thank you.