Nurselayer v Student Loans Company

[Movingon]

Excellent. *nods vigourously*

[emmaf01]

Hi Nurseslayer! I am very interested in what you're up to with this, as I have 4 pre-1998 SLC loans which, due to illhealth/disability have accumulated nearly £2K in charges alone. Every years I defer apart from 2 years when I was unable to gather the info they needed- specifically because I was too ill.

Their methods of debt recovery are continous, harassing and they have taken money which they were not authorised to take from my bank account. The charges are increasing.
Any way I could get these charges reduced would be a joy- they even stopped me going back to university when I was offered a place!

[Nurselayer]

Emma, I would recommend that you make a decision as to which avenue you are going to take against them. You can either go for trying to get the debt made unenforceable by using the CCA 1974 route which is what I am trying to do, there is alot of risk in this as there seem to be many conflicting pieces of legislation and very little case law. Or you can follow the route of getting the charges refunded as they are over the £12.50 that the OFT said would be unlawful.

I see from your signature that you are already taking action against some of the banks about unlawful charges - apparently this would be exactly the same against the SLC.

I'd also suggest that you try to get in touch with the NUS treasurer who has kindly posted on this thread as he may be very interested in your case. The SLC (in my opinion) should not be able to stop people from attending university.

As for taking money from your bank account that sounds wrong to me! Again check with others on here but if it was via Direct Debit there are very specific rules about what they can and can't do.

Whichever route you decide to take act fast. The quicker you can start against them the sooner that you can truthfully state that the account is in dispute and thus get them from stopping harassing you until the matter is resolved.

I hope this helps. All the best. Nurselayer

[emmaf01]

Thanks Nurseslayer.
I phoned SLC yesterday, asked them for all the info they had on my accounts. As it was the debt department they asked if I would be paying the arrears/charges- I said I had to go over the info with my advisors to assess the financial situation before I could decide on how to proceed.
Nice man then asked how far back I wanted- so I'll be getting info from before 6 years ago!
So I'm looking forward to seeing what I get. Have to keep it quiet though- husband is now accusing me of being obsessed.

[Nurselayer]

I would also send a Subject Access Request to them too, Emma. It's ok to request and them agree to send you this info but if they miss out any of it then there is no comeback against them. If you issue a Subject Access Request the have to send you the information by law. I'd recommend that you wait for the information that you've been promised to arrive, then issue a Subject Access Request under the Data Protection Act and then follow the steps as you would for claiming back charges from a bank. If you are unclear on any of this then read up on it on the site, if you are still unclear then feel free to ask. Why not also set up your own thead - Emma vs Student Loans Co, that way people will be able to see how you are getting on.

[emmaf01]

Thanks Nurseslayer. I'll do that. I've got to wait to do a Subject Access Request- need to gather my pennies for the £10!

[The_Badger]

I'm going to be sending off the Subject Access Request request today as well - I got a call yesterday demanding money for arrears despite being deferred and having charged me £20 for not paying despite me sending a Direct debit form that they "didn't recieve" like about 50% of my other letters I sent to them!

Its amazing how their postal deliveries go so astray really - You'd expect a postal service underpinned by the crown and protected by harsh legal penalties to be better at delivering letters to them - sorry sarcasm really is hard to do in text! :0)

Anyway I'll be pursuing them for the charges - might be just enough to pay off the loan - that would be great!

Many Thanks for the information.

The Badger

[Nurselayer]

I'm sorry it's been so long since I have updated this, please accept my apologies.

Here's a letter I sent to Bristol Trading Standards back in Nov. 06

Bristol City Council
Trading Standards
Neighbourhood and Housing Services
Brunel House
St George’s Road
BRISTOL
BS1 5UY 21st November 2006



Dear Sir or Madam

COMPLAINT UNDER SECTION 78(1) CONSUMER CREDIT ACT (1974)

The Student Loans Company Ltd, of 21 Thomas Street, Bristol BS1 6JS have failed to respond to my properly formatted and paid for statutory request for information under Section 77(1) of the Consumer Credit Act 1974. My request to them was sent on 25th July with the required fee and the statutory time limit for them to reply was 16th September 2006. As yet they have still not complied with Section 77(1) of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 and I believe that this may constitute a criminal offence. I wish to submit a formal complaint to you and would be grateful if you would investigate The Student Loans Company Ltd for non-compliance

I would be obliged if you would confirm what action you propose to take in respect of this matter.

I also sent the same letter to Glasgow Trading Standards quoting the Glasgow SLC address.

On the 29th November I received from the Student Loans Company all the information that I had requested under the Subject Access Request request that I had made (which you may remember I had cancelled some time earlier). Unfortunately it also included copies of my loan agreements.

Shortly after I received letters from both Trading Standards offices which I don't have to hand at the moment. I will post the contents when I dig them out but the gist was that they had contacted the SLC and they had been informed that the SLC had now sent the information required by the CCA request (I assume that this would be covered by the loan agreements sent with the Subject Access Request information).

I would therefore recommend that if you wish to try the CCA route to avoid repaying the Student Loans that you send a CCA request ONLY and not a Subject Access Request request. If however you wish to reclaim any charges then you send the Subject Access Request.

My fight with them still continues however and I will try and keep you updated with how it goes.

[noomill060]

Ive done it.

Ive forced SLC to remove all of their £20 penalties!!!

noomill v Student Loan Company ***WON***

[noomill060]

Woo Hooooooooooo!

Not so snotty are you now, SLC, you bunch of arrogant muppets!