HL Legal Solicitors

[daveCircus]

First of all hello to everyone, hope you all had a good xmas and new year!!

I took out my loans in 1997-2001. I did a 3yr deferment of my student loans in 2003 so it expired 2007. As usual the SLC didn't inform me it was going to expire and have been chasing me on and off through different companies/solicitors over the past year.
On about the 20th December!! i got a letter saying if i fail to repay the total outstanding amount by the 27th a legal review will be initiated and legal proceedings will start or a bayliff will visit. I thought this was the usual threats and with it being christmas ignored it. However i got a letter off them today saying that they are giving me seven days notice that unless i pay the full amount or contact them with a suitable repayment plan they could start legal proceedings against me on 04 Jan or soon after.

Myself and my partner are currently on benefits with a 1yr old son so paying the full amount is out of the question. I'm usually not that bothered by all their threats but this time they seem more serious and are actively going for a CCJ.

What do you all think i should do next?? Delay them by asking for a copy of all the agreements? Draw up an income and expenditure and send it to them?

thanks in advance for all your help!!!

[Hippy-chick]

Hi dave and welcome.

First of all - don't panic. Notice that they say they "could" take legal proceedings - not that they will.

You could try to CCA them and delay things for a while. I really don't know what the likelihood of them having the relevant paperwork is. However, you probably should ensure that there are no unfair charges on your account by doing a S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) before you think about a repayment plan. There's letters in the template library you can use for this - let us know if you need a link to them

[daveydavey]

hi, you do have a valid defence, i wouldn't worry- firstly if you're on benefits (e.g. Income Support / JSA ?) most are inalienable , i.e. cannot be claimed. (part of my letter to them pasted below) - as you're on benefits you're obviously entitled to deferment - did they write to you after it had expired ?

> Furthermore, Income Support & DLA are both INALIENABLE BENEFITS under the Social Security Administration Act 1992

**Certain Benefit to be inalienable **

187- Subject to the provisions of this Act, every assignment of, or charge on-
(a) benefit as defined in section 122 of the Contributions and Benefits Act;
(b) any income-related benefit; or
(c) child benefit,
and every agreement to assign or charge such benefit shall be void; and, on the bankruptcy of the beneficiary, such benefit shall not pass to any trustee or other person acting on behalf of his creditors.

As IS / DLA was my sole income and were INALIENABLE BENEFITS during the non-deferred period (& remains so), it is unlawful for you to lay claim to them, either in arrears or charges. A ludicrous situation, as on that level of income my 'earnings' are well below the repayment threshold. >


I know that some people on benefits have had bank charges refunded due to the above.

Have you used the complaints procedure ? check out SLC's own website, you can email your complaint to them. If you do so, you should then inform the solicitors you have made a formal complaint to the SLC & are awaiting the outcome(s) - there are three internal stages of complaint.
The good news is that once you have exhausted the SLC's own complaints procedure (which is very poor in my experience - expect one-sided unfair biased shallow responses), from April 2007 you can then complain to the Financial Services Ombudsman who will look at your complaint fairly & objectively . (for pre-1998 student loans, this is according to the SLC's own site). Presumably there are good reasons why the Government has introduced this ?

*** if you make a formal complaint & inform the solicitors you have done so you would have a very strong defence if they ignored this & took you to Court until all complaint(s) have been resolved, including to the Financial Services Ombudsman Service if (probably) needed. You could simply show the complaint to the Court, & explain that you cannot reasonably be taken to Court while your formal complaint(s) are being dealt with so their claim is premature, unreasonable & should therefore be dismissed.

Anyway the letter threatening Court Action may well be a bluff, many others on here have been threatened with this & still haven't been taken to Court, especially those on low incomes entitled to deferment - why should you be penalised for the SLC's maladministration of your loan ? - a common occurence! I'm still waiting for them to take me to Court 3.5 years after they created 'arrears' on my account as a result of their failure to process my deferment form on time - I've even asked them to take me to Court to resolve the situation but they haven't!

So try to be strong don't be taken in by the SLC & associates usual bullying tactics - step 1 : email a formal complaint to the SLC, step 2 : inform the solicitors you have done so & are awaiting the outcome & any legal claim in the meantime would be dismissed by the Courts because of this. Also request to the SLC in your complaint to contact the solicitors to inform them the complaint is being dealt with & to suspend any further collection action.