Hi Can someone point me in the right direction. We live in County Durham with our 3 daughters aged 16, 13 and 11. Can someone tell me what happens if my eldest who is currently at college goes on to university. Although it's over a year away I was wondering what happens if she goes off to uni but comes home during the holiday holidays. Am I allowed to still keep her bedroom and still receive housing benefit for a 3 bed house. I have tried on the Durham council website but it mentions nothing of keeping a room for s student to come home to. Many thanks

Hi!, I have an income contingent loan from the SLC that hasn't been paid on for a few years, when I left my job in the UK and moved to the USA where I'll soon become a citizen with no intentions on moving back. Please know that this is an embarrassing situation for me but hearing past stories of how nasty the SLC can be with adding penalties, etc. I was never in a good financial situation to be told I needed to pay in full or have the interest rates tripled. I'm aware of several other threads on this forum from others in a similar situation, but since they're either very old or left no follow up posts with success (or failure?), I'm creating a new thread here. The current situation is not dire - I have recently received a letter simply asking to update my details for repayment. I have parents in the UK which is my last known address for them, and it was them who actually received it and happened to forward this particular letter to me. The SLC does not currently have my new address. I did send them an update via mail about a year after moving over but obviously it had gotten lost!! I do not want my parents involved in any further communication, so my plan is to update the SLC with my new address. I'm unsure about giving them any more details than that. I'm hoping I can work out a repayment plan with the SLC, but as some other OP's have described, it's easy to get thrown into a loop where the only outcome is "pay the amount WE tell you or face legal action, or a DCA". If this happens, I fear I won't be able to meet their demands and thus have the following concerns: Have there been any changes in the law that would allow them to force repayment here in the US? Although I have no plans to move back, I would still visit - is there anyway that future court action would cause problems at the airport? As I said before, I'll try and work something out with the SLC first and foremost. I'll keep this thread updated with the outcome in case others also have the same concerns! Thanks for the great site!

Hi, this is my first time using the site and I am slightly confused by information seen on here and on other forums. A few years ago while at Uni I had 1 current account and 1 student account both having overdrafts. After uni I went abroad to work for a NGO thinking I would only be there 6 months, but six month became 5 years. I have recently returned home to find that my accounts are default (my fault, forgot about them while living abroad) and both debts have been sold on to a debt collection agency (1st credit). Now i'm back home really want to start looking at buying a house with my brother but my credit file is messed up (his is perfect). I would like to clear off these debts so they are marked as fully settled but have limited funds with which to do so, the debts are as follows: 1st credit - £1572.86 - (originally with lloyds bank plc) - defaulted 23/11/2012 1st credit - £750.00 - (originally with halifax bank) - defaulted 06/04/2011 I have about £750 to service these debts, but not sure how to go about making the offer so that it will marked as fully settled. Any advice anyone could give would be very much appreciated.

I'm writing on behalf of my sister in law, she left school at 16 and had a family young. Now several years later with four young girls she has worked hard to get the qualifications to begin her degree. Due to my brother working she has had to place the two youngest children in child care, this child care and degree acceptance was based on (documented) information given by student finance stipulating they would offer financial assistance. After a torrid 6 months of chasing student finance, raising a family and studying full time she has received a letter informing her that they've made an error and she will not receive child care support, compounded by the fact that she is now required to pay back any finance paid previously. This has left her with debt from child care, money to repay, cancellation of her degree and all the other stresses this will bring. The main question here is does she have any cause to claim the money from student finance, as this was arranged on the proviso that they would assist with childcare?

Hi there, I thought I should write this post on Consumer Action Group as some of the threads on this forum provided me with some valuable advice when I first got caught about three weeks ago using my partner's student oyster card on Transport for London. The case has now been settled out of court and I thought I should share my experience with others who may now be in a similar position. I had been using my student's oyster card for about 8 months buying weekly travelcards with the occasional use of top-up (when the travelcard was not valid for those zones or when the travelcard had expired for that week) before I was caught in early June 2015 by a revenue inspection officer. I was asked various questions about intention to use and how long I had been using it for, to which I combined both fact and fiction (I was under duress and, like so many others, I had no idea what the potential repercussions could be). I was then cautioned ("You do not have to say anything. But it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence") to which she proceeded to ask more questions (such as 'do you have another oyster card? 'do you have any money to get home?', 'who buys the travelcards..?' etc) before I said goodbye and walked away (remember that once you are cautioned you have the RIGHT to respond 'no comment' and to walk away until you have the opportunity to seek legal representation). Luckily, my revenue inspection officer was extremely amiable and told me I could walk away if I wanted to, so do bare this in mind if this happens to you. I was then sent a letter about three days later from the Special Investigations Team asking me to attend an interview for 'historical offences' and 'irregular usage' of the student oyster card and another letter a couple of days later form the Area 10 Investigations Team asking me to make any comments about the incident, otherwise known as a 'Verification Letter'. In both letters it was said that if I failed to respond it may result in the case being progressed by the Prosecutions Team. I had read somewhere online that if you are asked to attend an interview, it was seen that your case was more 'serious'. So, when I received the first letter, I started to panic, and decided to ring various solicitors to inquire about legal representation. Of the two I spoke to, [removed], I tried a third solicitor to get a different opinion from the two others who, although seemed incredibly efficient, also seemed quite impersonal [removed], (Do bare in mind also that these costs would have been on top of any additional monies I would have had to pay to Tfl for fare evasion discrepancies and the admin fees involved in handling my case file, mounting up to a cost of over £1000 in total, a sum I wanted to lower as much as possible). I then spoke to someone at [removed], who gave me some invaluable and incredibly helpful advice about dealing with Tfl (all for which he did for for free, about 20 mins of his time over the phone). He told me that many individuals at Tfl were incredibly reasonable [he gave me the direct phone number of the head of the prosecutions team] and if I failed to get through to ring the number on the letter and find out which member of the investigations team was handling my case and ask whether it would be possible to arrange an informal settlement. I was incredibly anxious about doing this (just because i wasn't sure what to say, whether I would be giving them more information than needed, whether it was even possible or not etc), but his confidence and reassurance gave me the vote of confidence I needed (hence, why I am now sharing this with all of you, to know that you can do the same), and also that he wouldn't be able to take on my case legally anyway as he was so busy. I then spent the following morning finding out who was in charge of my case, to which I finally got hold of someone [removed], and said that I wanted to arrange in an informal settlement with regards to my case, that I was incredibly sorry for my actions, and that I had been incredibly anxious about the incident and its potential outcome (a guilty verdict would have resulted in me losing my job). He responded really reasonably, telling me that he understood that people become incredibly nervous about the potential outcomes to their case and he didn't want anyone to ever lose any sleep over it). He said that I should respond to the verification letter by email providing details of how often I had used the oystercard and for how long for. He stressed that it was important for me to be as honest and upfront as possible, because they were able to investigation quite a lot of information about my journey history (remember they have whole teams investigating each case in detail), and to provide any serial numbers of any other oyster cards I had been using at the time. I then emailed him with all the details, being completely honest about how long I had been using it for, stressing my apology and my anxiety and my willingness to repay any costs. Just over a week later, I received an email from another member of the SIT team saying that I that they had agreed to an informal settlement and gave me a sum I had to repay within the next 14 days. This has all been paid and settled now, and I am extremely thankful that I did not incur the additional costs of solicitors' fees, or have to go through the trouble of attending an interview (which I think would be have been quite a scary experience). The point of writing this really is to not only realise that there are reasonable and helpful people out there [removed], but for others who are in a similar position to realise that Tfl can be reasonable and amiable people, who's intention is not necessarily to prosecute members of the public, but to regain costs that they have lost by you evading the full fare. The main thing is that Tfl want people to be compliant and honest, which I am thankful I have now done (there is always an element of skepticism of giving too much information anyway). So, the main tips are: 1) Do not be afraid to ring and speak to someone over the phone (thankfully we do not yet live in a age where everything is so drenched in bureaucracy that we are unable to talk to another human being) and 2) respond promptly to both the verification letter/or interview letter (or whatever you receive), and do not ignore it and think it will go away (for your sake as much as anybody's - I know I lost a fair bit of sleep just about the idea of being prosecuted, however remote it may have actually been). If you do have any questions about my case or anything else, please reply to this thread and I will try to answer them (I can only really talk about my experience, not about fare evasion on London buses, other train lines etc, though I do assume the process may be similar). Hope that has been a useful and (hopefully) inspiring thread. Thanks, Wilson

Hi all, Here's the situation: Opened a student account in 2007 with full overdraft and extended this a couple of times as per the normal rules and up to the max available limit of £2000 Ever since graduating have had financial difficulties with other credit cards and payday loans which are now (thankfully!) resolved. This is my last debt and i want to get rid, i want to pay it off but Natwest don't seem to want to help. I have already opened another account with first direct and have switched over my wages and other regular s/o and d/d so my ongoing financial commitments are covered. Currently, the account balance is around £2050 - incidentally, it was fees and interest that took me over the agreed limit - something that happens almost every month - (last month was charged over £100 in fees alone. I want to pay what i owe them back - but so far their only communication has been a request to settle outstanding funds within 7 days - and whilst i'm in better financial position than i was, i haven't got the ability to rustle up that kind of money. Similarly, a telephone conversation this afternoon basically stated that i should just keep paying off in dribs and drabs until the overdraft is cleared. Nevertheless, all i want is an agreement in writing saying x amount to be paid monthly until the outstanding is cleared. Will be keeping all communication in writing in the future. How do i proceed? Any help would be hugely appreciated!

Hello and good evening Can anyone clarify that if I claim JSA will anything be deducted due to the fact that I live with my son age 18 a full time uni student he receives the full student loan. I know students are not counted for HB but will anything be taken off my JSA. Many thx in advance

Hello everyone, This is quite a complicated case, but I need some advice on how to deal with it as I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed by it all. 1. Signed up to Xercise4Less Nottingham in September 2014. Was led to believe that I was joining on a rolling contract, and also was never given a copy of the contract or any paperwork for that matter 2. Went into the branch to freeze my membership for 6 months (free of charge as I am a student). My student ID was photocopied and they said that the freeze would then commence after a few days of processing or whatever. 3. Checked my direct debits in June to find that payments to Harlands (£9.99) had still been going through the whole time! Whilst my membership was supposed to be frozen! 4. Phoned and phoned to no avail, with most phone calls ending due to no-one even bothering to pick up the phone. Phoned the Leeds branch (their HQ I believe) and was told that I'd receive a call back in half an hour. They didn't call me back. I emailed the front desk and also submitted my story through their website's customer support page. Still no replies/ people saying they didn't know what to do. 5. Finally got through to someone (Olivia) who knew what was going on! She found my freeze application form in a drawer at the Nottingham branch. She informed me that it had simply never been processed because whoever was working on reception that day must have forgotten. It turned out that the receptionist then left the job that weekend, so my form was sat in a desk drawer for months without anyone knowing about it! 6. Persistently tried to contact Xercise4Less to get my money back but yet again found myself running down dead ends. Really poor customer service as per usual. I emailed Tim Slaven, a receptionist, and explained the situation and that I wanted my money back. This is his reply: Hello Daniel, I have chased this up for you and our head office have decided that it's best to freeze the membership but still allow access to the club. The reason for this is that you are still in contract. When taking out this contract you agreed to paying Xercise4Less 12 payments. If Xercise4Less were to action this refund you will have had a 12 month contract for the price of 6. This would also cause a breach in the contract agreement. I apologise for any inconvenience that may have resulted from your membership not being frozen. Kind regards, Tim Slaven 7. I replied to Tim, but he also then went dead on me and I was left with nowhere else to turn in terms of contacting people at the gym, so I turned to Barclays (my bank) and got an indemnity payment. Barclays took back my money and refunded it into my account. I thought that would be the end of it. 8. I received the notorious CRS - IMPORTANT - PLEASE CALL US... letter on 20th October 2015. They say that my account balance stands at £222.43. It was sent to my home address in London (perhaps my 2nd address on my Xercise4Less account) They claim to have sent me previous letters but they must have been sent to my uni halls address (I am now a second year student living at a different address). 9. I've phoned CRS (a mistake, I know) and told them that I would not pay a "settlement fee, as a good will gesture". I missed a call from them this morning. What do I do now? Please help!

The Student Loans Company (SLC) is overcharging almost 80,000 graduates by ten per cent every year – leaving them £580 out-of-pocket each time. Automatic income contingent repayments (ICR) begin when a graduate begins to earn over a certain amount of money once they complete their studies. The repayments are collected through the UK tax system where borrowers remain in the UK. However, as the SLC only receives information from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) about what customers have repaid once a year – after employers have finalised their annual tax returns – there is a ‘time lag’ which means thousands of people nearing the end of their repayments overpay, unless they opt for payment by direct debit. http://www.independent.co.uk/student/news/student-loans-company-is-overcharging-almost-80000-graduates-by-580-every-year-baker-tilly-finds-10431230.html

I am in the same position but I have defended the claim on the grounds that HSL do not legally own the debt. I complained about having loans accounts for 1996 and 1997 being administered separately from ones that I took out in 1999 and 2000 because I was being asked to do everything twice (defer, pay etc...). They sold the 1996/7 ones to HSL using a clause in the contract that allows them to transfer rights BUT the first clause states that the 1997 and 1998 amendments to the 1990 act are to be regarded as the applicable regulation and those two amendments both say that loans should not come into repayment at the same time and should be treated as one loan. This means that by selling the loans in March 1999 they knew that they would not be able to comply with legislation in force and used the clause which allowed the sale to circumvent the applicable regulation. This makes this clause an unfair contract term under EU law and as such is unenforceable. Defend it!!

Hi all, First of all I have been a bit cheeky, but if anybody could clarify the below it would be appreciated. I returned to the UK last month and the SLC want 5 grand off me upfront for loan arrears and additionally I need to pay the remainder of the debt off via the PAYE system. The amount to be paid off via the PAYE is for around another 10k and will be paid off in due course. My question, as I cannot afford to pay off the full 5k. Has anybody been in this position before and if so what was the outcome? I hoped that the arrears would be consolidated with the remainder and I would pay everything off for x number of years via the PAYE system. Thank you very much and hopefully I receive some juicy responses All the best, Cookie813

I would really appreciate it if someone could advise me on what would be best in this situation! I have read many of the helpful threads here but I am still unclear on what to do next. I have a student loan with the SLC (Student Loans Company) from the UK, from 2005 to 2008, for an amount around 12K GBP. I left the UK in 2011 and have since been living in British Columbia, Canada as a permanent resident. I initially deferred loan payments. The last one-time payment I made was in January 2013 (around 250GBP). My parents live at my previous address. I have not yet informed the SLC that I moved abroad. I intend to live in Canada permanently. I am unable to make payments currently, but may be able to make small contributions in a year's time. I am now quite concerned since the latest letter states the SLC have referred the account to a DCA (Drysdensfairfax). I assume they still think I live in the UK. I am aware there are reciprocal agreements between the UK and Canada. Is it possible a DCA here may try to locate me and request the loan amount? Could this impact my credit rating here in Canada or anything else? Should I at least contact the SLC or DCA to inform them I am no longer living in the UK? Is it possible I may receive a CCJ, and what can I do if so? My parents are also concerned that my unpaid loan may impact them, but is that possible? Thanks for any help!

Where a loan has been written off by Thesis, is there any evidence that Erudio are trying to revive and collect on them.? Had a letter from SLC saying my loans which were with Thesis, and have been written off six months ago are now with Erudio, Or is it likely as I think SLC have fecked up? Thoughts.

Hi everyone, This is my first post here and I wish I had found you earlier. I need some help; I have tried to sue my collage/university: Name: Grimsby institute of F and HE Course: FD Applied Computing with Multimedia Tech Length of course: foundation plus 2 years Years of studies: 2010/11, 2011/12, 2012/13 and 2013/14 Why: unfair timescale of notifying Student Finance England (SFE) Last day of attendance: 14th January 2014 SFE notification: 15th April 2014 Court of own motion order: Failing to identify a cause of action in law And failing to identity why the principle should have personal liability (my intention was to sue the college) Can some one help me please and what other info do you need?

This is quite annoying that I recently received 2 separate letters from my Council demanding council tax including enforcement charges at an old address where I use to live between 8-10yrs ago. Points to note are 1) Council Tax at that time was under 2 people's name including me and another person. Now the letter from council demanding council tax are under both people's name BUT I have no idea my other housemate is now. 2) At my time at that address I was in full time education and I did gave in all my college/university letters for exemptions. 3) Since it is such a long time gone pass there is no chance that any college or university would issue such letter again and I have not kept old college/university copies either. 4) I wrote to Council the following letter (BUT I did not get any proof of postage): To The Council Tax Team Address I write to you in regards to 2 recent council tax bills I have received which I would like to dispute. Firstly these bill are over 10yrs old and are in my and ********'s name. I have no idea where Mr. ***** resides and have no contact for him so in the first step can you kindly separate the liability as I am not responsible for any dues owned by Mr ********. Secondly could you kindly tell me following things: 1) The period for which the dues are seek for 2) Why are you seeking these dues as during my term on those addresses I have been in full time education and all the college/university letters were duly submitted to the council for the exemptions. 3) How many Liability Orders do you have against me 4) The dates Liability Orders were obtained 5) The addresses they were for 6) The period of time each covers 7) How much each one was for 8) How much is still outstanding 9) The dates they were passed on for enforcement I would also like to formally request council that I am at the dispute with the council tax dues sought and until this dispute is resolved council should not proceed with any collection or court proceedings. I would look forward to a prompt and specific answer to this dispute letter Thanksfully My Name. I have now today received 2 letters from Bailiffs just under my name demanding me to pay the entire debt in next 14 days. Can someone please help me and tell me 1) What should my next course of action should be? 2) Was the letter I wrote to council correct? 3) Who should I contact and how to make council deal with my query? 4) How to stop the Bailiff's proceedings until my query is dealt by the council? 5) Am I in my right to ask council to separate my dues with my other housemate of that time? Many thanks in Advance

Dear all, Some little advice please. I've read other people's threads on the same subject but cannot find all the information I seek. In January, I was caught with my g/f's student oyster card. I did only do it a handful of times but will not try and justify my actions. When I first received a letter from TFL, I wrote back with a full apology, an offer to pay fines and assoc. costs and explaining how I have never had been in trouble with the law before and how negatively this could affect my future career prospects. I have received a mag. court summons this morning for the 20th of May. From what I've read on here, I think I'm going to write to the prosecutor from TFL requesting a settlement out of court and hope for the best. My questions to you are: if I end up pleading guilty, how serious will the charge be? Will it be a CCJ? Will future employers see it when applying for a new job? I'm due to visit the US at the end of the year, will this stop me entering? Also, I hear about people getting out of things on technicalities... They have noted in the summons that I was stopped at Acton Town station... When in fact I was nowhere near there. Would a wily solicitor get me off on something like that?? Thanks in advance

Just a few quick questions: 1) Can I send Erudio a request for a copy of my original student loan agreements. [1995-1998]? 2) Do Erudio have a legal requirement to provide them? 3) How do I go about asking? Appreciate any help ... thank you. JMG

Hi guys, had a read of the forums and my problem looks similar to some others, but want to be sure, so if you could help me out and put my mind at rest that would be great. Here is my situation: Graduated Uni in 2004 with around 14k GBP of student loan debt (all other debt like CC and overdraft was paid off) Moved to NZ that year, without earning enough in the UK to hit the repayment threshold. At the time, I sent the letter to them advising I was going overseas for more than three months and they should use my parents house in the UK for correspondence. As it happens, I ended up staying in NZ and settled down (great country) Since I sent that letter in 2004, I have had nothing from the SLC to my parents house. not a single letter, so I have made no attempt to contact them or do anything more as it just didn't seem that important if they weren't actively chasing me. Now, out of the blue, a letter arrives to my parents house saying I need to fill out an overseas assessment form within the next two months or start incurring monthly default charges of 250 quid (per month!). I do intend to pay it off, but right now can't afford the amounts I know they will assess on my income if i fill out the form and send it back as we have just had a baby and my wife isn't working, and won't for at least 1 year, plus my mortgage is astronomical right now So I have a few questions: 1) my loan is 'new style' from 2000-2004, but since they haven't contacted me in over ten years and I have made no payments ever is the debt not considered to be statute barred? 2) If it isn't statute barred, and I remain in NZ permanently, is there any practical way they can pursue the debt or effect my NZ credit record? 3) Is there any way I can defer payments for a couple of years, even though my gross income is well above the threshold required 4) are the default charges they intend to levy of 250 quid per month actually legal? they seem absolutely massive (circa 20% of the actual debt amount per year) (ETA: I think I misread this charge as a penalty charge, when actually it is just their guess as to what you should pay, so it will come off the loan if I pay it rather than being tacked on. still very high though) 5) If i don't pay but come back to the UK for a holiday, is there anything they can do like have me arrested at the airport? 5) If I move back to the UK (no plans, but could happen) will I suddenly owe the entire amount? and will it harm my Uk credit record?

Hi This is my first time posting on this site as it was recommended by my mom. whilst at uni in 2011 I was given a grant which I didnt have to pay back. I left uni early as I was unhappy and deceided to quit. Now I am receiveing letters that they require this money back 1st from the student loans company whilst I was not in any type of work and now the debt has been passed on to Aninika. I need some advice on how to handle this company and the best way to approach and repay the debt. Many Thanks

Hi This isn't actually for myself by my girlfriend. I have used this forum before and it was great so would appreciate some advice here. Its a complicated situation so in order to fully understand what has happened, here is the complaint she sent to student finance last week. "I would like to make a complaint regarding the communication skills and moral dishonesty of student finance. Before detailing the areas of my complaint I would like to state that I have always completed all paperwork on time, queried any abnormalities and upheld all details stated in the contract. To begin, I was given a maintenance loan and tuition fee loan without query when I began my degree in Veterinary Science at the University of Liverpool (after recently completing my previous degree in Chemistry). I was aware that post-graduate students differ in their entitlement to student loans and spoke to numerous student finance advisers regarding this both before and after applying for a student loan. Not once was I told that student finance were making a mistake in allowing me my tuition fee loan and I was misled to believe that I would be able to finish my degree with complete financial support. That such a fundamental mistake could be made by so many of your staff is unthinkable and considering the impact it has now had on my studies, career, financial situation and well being. I am unable to understand how this mistake could have occurred multiple times and am seeking a full explanation regarding this. Not only did your staff make errors but I have been supplied with a full tuition fee loan for almost two years of my course and in this time your screening process has not picked up on this anomaly. I hope that this will also be addressed when investigating this complaint. Next, the manner in which Student Finance has dealt with their own incompetence can only be described as appalling. I received four letters in the space of two days and each letter had different values I was entitled to and confusingly spanned across a number of academic years. Together they were incomprehensible and incredibly unclear. My online account had always stated that I was received £0.00 for everything since you updated your online system. Upon querying this at the beginning of the year with one of you advisers I was told that it was just taking a long time to update. So I spokewith one of your advisers again to ask what all these letters meant; and although they also had trouble comprehending the situation I was told that the decision to discontinue my tuition fee loan had been made some time ago. I was never notified that my profile was being reviewed, given no written explanation as to why student finance had made such a mistake and offered no apology. This lack of communication is atrocious. How is Student Finance able to justify this knowing the impact this would have? As the investigation of this complaint I would require a full apology and would like to know the protocol Student Finance uses when dealing with ethically sensitive decisions. As of yet I not received the customer service that is advertised to students. Finally, I would like Student Finance to truly know the impact this has had. I am unable to fund my studies, am unable to apply for bursaries and have no additional financial support. I would never have invested the time and money into such a demanding and lengthy degree if I had not been misled by Student Finance on several occasions. I now face ending my course just before my exams that I will be unable to take and deal with the vast additional debt that would never have occurred. The actions of Student Finance will not only destroy my ambitions and career opportunities but will undoubtedly affect my well being. I expect an honest investigation on how this has happened,a sincere apology and how Student Finance aims to rectify such an abhorrent situation. " She has now been informed by her University (Liverpool) that she now may owe them 18k for the first 2 years of her degree. We live together and are independent (we rent) so obviously she cant afford to pay either the 18k herself or the further 3 years going forward. She obviously would want to continue with the degree if possible however we will have to see what happens. A strange situation I know. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks Patrick

Hi. I'm 24 and looking to go back into education in September (by which time I'll be 25) to study Animal Behaviour. I was told by a university this week that I would need either A Levels or an Access to HE course to allow me to apply. There seems to be plenty of funding available for university students, but I can't seem to find any for full time college students, as you can not apply for student living grants/loans until uni. I am living away from home and have been claiming ESA for a while now, but that will be ending soon. I know I can get a loan to cover the cost of any course and exam fees (from 24+ Advanced Learning Loan), but does anyone know of any help with living costs, or even any benefits I can claim whilst at college to pay for rent, food, bills etc? I don't know if this is the right place to post this thread, or even if anyone here can help, but I thought it was worth a shot as CAG has been very helpful in the past, and I'm struggling to work out what to do now after being turned down by the university. Thanks. Matt.

Hi all, Been reading through all the highly useful threads but I didn't find anything that covered my specific situation and I was hoping I could get some advice. I have a UK Student loan from 2001-2005 which I've fallen behind with my repayments on. I left the UK to move to France in 2005 but I was unable to keep up with the payments, the last payment I made I believe was in 2008 or 2009. Since then I've moved to the US and if I'm honest I totally forgot about the loan. Out of the blue today I've gotten a letter to my US address from the SLC demanding that I repay the arrears on my loan in full (7,200 GBP) it's dated the 15th of March and they expect me to repay within 21 days, its also listed as a final notice. I want to do the right thing with the loan but it's tax season right now and I have barely enough money to pay my tax, let alone seven thousand pounds. The earliest I think I'd have any money would be at the end of April and it wouldn't be anywhere close to that number. I was wondering if anyone had gone through something similar and what my legal rights are at this point. I'm guessing I'll have to contact them to negotiate but would like to know what my options are before talking to the SLC. Thanks in advance, any help or advice is highly appreciated.

What does everyone make of this ? It's a reply to my recent Statute Barred Letter to Honours Student Loans for a Loan taken out in 1994 Basically they are stating my Statute Barred claim is void because I haven't informed them of any changes of Addresses I've had, is this true? Do they have a case? Do I ignore the letter or reply? I'm guessing quite a few people would have received identical letters.. Thanks

I wonder if anyone can offer any advice. I had a student loan in 1997 (which I totally forgot about). A few months ago I received a letter from Erudio about it. As this was the first I had heard from them for 17 years, I replied back to them stating I believed it to be statue barred. Today while at work, a sheriff's officer left a citation at my home with my wife. It's actually a copy of a Charge for Payment from a court from 2002. This is the first of me being aware of this and telling me I have 14 days to £2,200!! Now, in May 2010 I entered into a trust deed which became protected. I was successfully discharged from this in March 2014. I guess I'm wondering what I do next? Just as I thought I was getting my finances back in order, this appears! What are my options? If I have to pay it, will they accept a full & final or a slightly reduced amount? Can I pay it up?

Mrs L.C.writes: I bought my house in 1999. Previous tenants left owing money to everyone possible. Their children went to university but have not repaid student loans, and every few months I have received demands, which I have returned, saying they are no longer at my address. Erudio Student Loans Limited has now taken over this debt. I told it that the family left over 15 years ago, but Erudio said it would keep sending demands. I protested and was told they would stop, but after two weeks another has arrived. Read more: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/experts/article-2904618/TONY-HETHERINGTON-Student-loan-demands-pile-15-years-tenants-moved-out.html#ixzz3OYUF3D6f