NHS Student Bursaries Reclaim! HELP!!

[sweetcakes]

I am an Irish Student who came to London to study nursing over 2 years ago. When I accepted a place in Uni I received letters to my Irish home address from the NHS Bursary informing me of my bursary entitlements which was over 7K per year.

At the end of 2nd year I chose the Degree pathway even though I knew I would loose the bursary. I have recently received letters from the NHS Bursary stating that they had made a mistake and that as I was Irish I was not entitled to the Bursary and therefore need to repay back the “overpayment” of nearly 15K within 30 days.

I was shocked! I am a student with no money, from a poor family. I don’t know what to do. Because the NHS told me I was entitled to the NHS bursary I did not apply for an Irish bursary (grant) and now it is too late (over 2 years too late)… I rang the Irish grant people and explained the situation, and although they thought it was terrible they said that it was too late to apply for the Irish grant now and that they could not back-date the grant, which I would of being entitled to.

Somebody please help, I am at a serious loss here, I am in my final year and I am meant to be studying for my final exams and dissertation but all I seem to do now is worry.

[old_andrew2007]

bump

[MrShed]

Thinking aloud more than anything, going by the case of for example overpayments by your employer. I am fairly sure there is a rule that you need to pay back overpayments by your employer, unless there is VALID reason that you can show that you had no reason to think you were not entitled to that money. I would think that this would be your argument.

Did you have to sign anything initially to receive the bursary? If so, do you still have a copy?

[poppynurse]

This is appalling - are you in a union?

Does the uni have student support sevices that could support you with this?

Would you have been entitled to a similar amount from the Irish bursary?

I would S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) the NHS bursary folk to see exactly what details they have on their system adn why they paid out.

I would also put the situation in writing to someone senior at the Irish bursary to see if they could do a retrospective grant application in the circumstances.

Hopefully someone wiht more experience will be along soon.

Please do not let this distract you from your studies too much - you are nearly there.

[poppynurse]

Any update?

[sweetcakes]

Hi, thank you for your replies I really appreciate your support.

No updates to report though.

I honestly didn’t know the NHS Bursary people could have made such a devastating mistake.
I love nursing, but this is depressing. L

As far as student support goes the Uni just told me they don’t really deal with such matters and to seek legal advice.

I would have got around 20,000 Euro from the Irish Grant/Bursary.

So not only have I lost out in that, the NHS Bursary wants me to pay nearly 15,000 Pounds. L

What does S.A.R entail?

[old_andrew2007]

Does your uni have a law department, if so might they be able to advise

Andy

[poppynurse]

S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) involves requesting a copy all /filespaperwork an organisation holds on you, for a fee of £10. You could then see the agreement you signed etc.

It seems to me that you were entitled to a bursary but it happens to be the wrong organisation that paid it. Andrew makes a good suggestion above. I would also think about involving your MP.

[MrShed]

Did you sign anything to receive the bursary?

[sweetcakes]

Hi, thanks for the replys.

I recently spoke to the Uni about what might I have signed and they told me that the NHS bursary form is the same form used for payment of Uni fees which all nursing students have to fill out and sign. So I definitely signed something anyway. From that, what I can gather is I filled out the form as I should have, then received a letter to my Irish home address telling me of my entitlements, now 2 years gone by, they turn around and say they made a mistake.

Also, how would I go about involving an MP?

I think the Uni has a Faculty of Law I will try to contact someone from there as well.