Hi all

I am asking for advice on behalf of a friend who lives in England as an EU national.

Question one:

She had been receiving student loan for a business course which she could not finish.

There were all sorts of problems with communication between her and the school and she still is trying to sort out something to be able to finish the second and final year of the course.

Not much chance for that as I see it.

In the meantime she got a letter that informed her that she owed 32k in student loan.

She went very much downhill with both her mental and physical health and is extremely stressed about this debt.

Should she be?

She has never earned more than minimum wage and with her health problems now she could rely on benefits for some time.

Question two:

If she is not likely to be chased by bailiffs for the student loan could that change in the event of Brexit happening?

Rosie, tell your friend that the worst thing to do is allow her mental health to affect their normal judgement. It is the voice in the head that is telling them things, which are simply wrong or the worst outcome that could happen. The worst outcome can happen when people bury their head in the sand and simply give up, not bothering to communicate with organisations.

The education establishment should have a health and wellbeing or welfare team that deals with students that get into such difficulties. I doubt your friend is the only person that has attended the school, that has has had similar problems. They need to contact the school themselves or provide a letter of authority for someone to act on their behalf to make the first contact. Then an appointment can be set up with the person that handles these situations.

Once the first step is made, then the other issues, such as finishing the course and the loan debt can be dealt with. Your friend should get advice, which will be to keep in contact with loan provider so they understand the situation. They might want information, which can be provided, stopping any debt being chased, if the level of earnings has not reached the threshold. If your friend can update all those that need to know, then they won't have this stressfull situation to deal with.

The student loan debts are not subject to any enforcement action, until a long time has passed by. Take action now to update student loan provider and school, so this problem is removed. If your friend takes no action, the debt will get passed to debt collectors at some point and if your friend ignores them, they they may try to gain a CCJ against your friend. Once they get the CCJ, then there are options such as bailiffs, but it is unlikely unless it is a private business school that uses bailiffs.

In regard to Brexit changing debt collection agreements between UK and EU countries, I very much diubt there will be any change. In theory most debts can be chased across borders, as the loan agreement won't restrict enforcement of the debt to UK Courts. If another country allows a UK debt to be considered by their courts, then the debt could follow your friend. But it is very unlikely, as they have enough problem with debt enforcement against UK residents.

Advice is take action as advised and don't ignore everything hoping it goes away.

Thank you very much for the in-depth advice!

My friend will follow your advice I am sure.She will be massively relieved by the news.

She already pays a solicitor to get to the bottom of the issues with the school with the little money she has.But school even ignores solicitor letters.

You mentioned private business school and possible bailiff action.Is the debt not with HMRC if letter comes from them?I can only check later with her whether the school is private or not.

My mistake the letter is from Student Loan Companies.

if she doesn't earn the money

then they cant take their slice

Thanks.That's great news for her but also she needs to know that bailiffs would not harrass her either.She is in a situation where she cannot put up with more stress and family finding out about it.

where are you getting the crap about bailiffs from?

they only ever become involved AFTER someone has been to court and lost 'whatever' and fail to pay 'whatever'

nothing remotely ever to do with student loan nor any consumer debt.

not getting confused with Debt Collection Agencies are you?

they ARE NOT BAILIFFS AND ARE TOTALLY POWERLESS

Ok.I get it.

Probably she mistakes the two.

Not good to get involved without knowing all details.

She told me she was visited by bailiffs for Provident debt which was already dealt with by an arrangement.

This is why she gets 'paranoid'.

It must have been debt collectors on that occasion too.

Never mind she gets freaked out from them too.

Thanks for info.

I will educate her on this subject.

if she paying that provi debt then tell her to stop

that money is going directly into the doorsteppers pocket

same with any other debts she paying to DCA's

lets have a list please

or can you get her to come up on CAG be the better idea

No Solicitors should be taking any little money she has. If she has a legal dispute with the college, there are probably other dispute resolutions available that don't require a Solicitors.

If people stop speaking to organisations to engage with them to resolve issues, then matters have a tendency to become worse and more complicated to resolve.

If there is a student union or other student help function at the college, they might be worth contacting for information.

Yes,you are right.I am afraid hers is a very complex story.

She needs my support now and I will come back here for more good advice.

She pays £20/week for debt arrangement.

Could she kick that up and pay less?

on what?

Sorry,

don't have specifics tonight.

She pays a debt arrangement company who contacted her creditors and she agreed to pay £20/week to cover all her debts and has been paying it for almost a year now.

Non priority ones and one tax fine payment in the package.

But Provident and HMRC keeps sending letters and I just wrote an email for her to ask why she is still bothered by them.

I wrote the email to the debt arrangement company.

hope its not a fee paying DMP company

if it is DUMP THEM.

tax one is priority debt and should be paid directly to HMRC?

the rest not I bet.