Student Loans

[nikkiandmidgets]

My mum went to college about 8-10 years ago and got a student loan. She never heard anything from them till a few years ago when she got a demand for money. They said she had never filled in the deferrment notices that had to be filled in annually but she says she knew nothing about having to do this. She is 54 now and currently paying £30 per month which she cannot afford. She thought she would not have to pay because she wasis below the earnings threshold and is now over 50. Should they not have sent the deferment forms to her automatically, and surely if she doesnt earn enough and cannot afford she should not be penalised for something she didnt know or understand fully. Anyone any advice on how she can go about contesting this, she tried before but didnt use any legal jargon and they just said that because she didnt notify them she qualified for deferment she had to pay? She really struggles to pay this and if it can be stopped then great. A bonus would be if any payments she has made could be refunded but obviously that would be a bonus on her part as she would initially just like to have a bit extra money every month.

Thanks for any help...!

[delorean]

If you have trouble repaying your student loan : Directgov - Education and learning

Hope this helps?

[jb79]

Has anyone had a go at the SLC yet, they have charged me £12 twice and it seems a little too close to call.

They are however the worst people to owe money to I have ever dealt with and you can't walk away from the interest rate so your stuck with them.

[livity]

Yup, the Student Loan Company manufactured numerous charges against my account up 'til 2005. On each occasion I refused to pay and contested the charge - on each occasion they eventually withdrew the charge. At that point I got so sick of them I sought legal advice. On the advice of my lawyer I paid the unlawful penalty charge (mine was for £20 - I'm sure most charges were, I'm surprised you got away with £12) and then immediately (in the same letter as my cheque!) requested it back. After much messing around they repaid their debt to me. Since then I've repeated the process each time they've applied an unlawful charge. And every charge they apply is unlawful.

Best of luck. In my experience they're incompetent at best, and corrupt at worst. But they're also cowards, and will pay rather than go to court - the risk of refunding five (Scotland)/six (rest of UK) years worth of unlawful charges scares them too much to risk court.

Livity

[nikkiandmidgets]

My mums loan dates back to 1996 so have typed up a CCA and Subject Access Request request for the account - think it was passed to a DCA so does it get sent to SLC or DCA? Am hoping they will back down, give her back her money paid and defer the loan until her wages increase. Worth a try anyway.

[kokomar]

Now don't take my word for this because it came from SLC a couple of months ago. Loans such as mine (I assume this means pre-98 which mine are) have an end date by which they must be repaid, no more deferment. I was under the impression that if you never earned over the threshold it would eventually be written off, but according to them that is not the case. They have "kindly" extended my loan date by 6 months to allow me to pay off the balance of just over £1k which i am doing because I don't see that I have a choice. I earn a lot less than your Mum and (don't want to sound rude here) would jump for joy if I had the negotiating skills to bring it down to £30 pm. However I too intend to write with Subject Access Request and CCA requests if only to get back the charges levied on the accounts. I can't wait to see what's written in the original T & C's when I get a copy. Sorry this probably isn't what you want to hear.

[nikkiandmidgets]

Thanks for that info - will have to see what they say.... She got her repayments down to £30 cos she filled in an income\expenditure form. At end of day she is left with about £145 a month after paying wages arrestment for council tax/electric/gas/phone/insurance/mortgage and a couple of other debts from several years ago. Her bus fares are approx £85 and occassionaly she has to get a taxi to get to and from her work if she has to go in early or work back late(She is a cook at a golf club). These cost £12 each so she doesnt have a lot left to live on for food, household goods and cleaning products, clothes etc. I am trying to sort out her finances cos most of problems are due to her being a single parent for so long. My father never paid anything and then she got fleeced by a boyfriend so would be nice if she could get some money to decorate her house or buy a new outfit as a treat once in a while! single mums sacrifice so much over the years so would like to return the favour to her.

Maybe if you fill in a form, or negotiate through CAB you will get a lower repayment agreed - I think thats who my mum did it through...?

[jb79]

I have a strong hunch that the SLC are begining to make up the details of the pre 98 loans. I had a conversation with them on friday and kept being told that they didn't think that the deferment threshold should go up by much this year. I tried several times to correct the language and get confirmation that the 85% of avererage income was still being used but the language kept returning to the limit being subjective not obvjective as in the agreement. I suspect i was talking to another highly motivated civil servant who spoted the first thing that came into their head.

I am close enough to the wire to make a case on this worthwhile, any suggestions on the Freedom of Information act letter needed.

Should I first of all request that they provide copies of the original loan agreement and use the terms within to structure the letter.