Jayney71 vs Student loans company

[noomill060]

Have you now got a list of the dates of all the £20 letter charges, Jayney?

[jayney71]

Hi Noomill

Yes, I have a list of all the charges. I'm planning on sitting down with it all this weekend and trying to sort it.

The only problem (well, one of the only problems) is that I'm asking for the charges to be removed as they're unlawfully punative, but what do I do about the arrears which they have erroneously charged onto my account?

 

The charges are there because of the arrears, and the arears shouldn't be there in the first place. Strictly speaking, shouldn't I be going for the arrears?... if I can show that they've been accrued in error then the charges will disappear too.

 

I know I can get the charges removed by following your advice and it may be the easiest way to go, but then I'm faced with either addressing the arrears separately (which makes addressing the charges first a waste of time) or coughing up, seeing as though it's money I'd probably end up payng back anyway.

 

What do you reckon? I'm tying myself up in knots with this!

 

Jayney

[noomill060]

Refresh my mind as to why the arrears shouldnt be there.

 

(We can work this into your particulars of claim and draw this to the attention of the court and ask the judge to order SLC to remove both the unlawful charges -and any arrears which are not lawfully owing)

[jayney71]

Thanks, Noomil...

 

There are 7 months' worth of arrears in total - split into 1 month and 6 months:

 

One Month

 

One month was from several years ago (I would have to look up the date) when they didn't send me the deferment forms so I called them to get some. I completed them and sent them back within the 3-month backdating period allowed. They chose to process the deferment after the three months, thereby going into the fourth month... hence one month in arrears. (They have confirmed that they received them within the 3 months.)

Shortly after this is when the letters and phone calls began, pestering me for money.

 

6 Months

 

The other 6 months' worth is from 2005 when my deferment form came through just after I'd changed jobs.

I phoned the slc and they said that a letter from Personnel confirming my employment and salary would be fine.

I got a letter from personnel and sent it off with the form.

Then I received a standard form from the slc telling me that I hadn't enclosed any proof of income with my deferment form.

Annoyed, I phoned the slc to tell them that I had sent in a letter form Personnel as agreed. They said they hadn't received it. I probably then hung up on them out of frustration.

I couple of weeks later (took me this long to calm down enough) I phoned them again. This time they told me they had received the Personnel letter but they couldn't accept it as it wasn't dated. I asked why they hadn't told me this in the first place and it could have been sorted out very easily, rather than telling me they hadn't received it...

By this time I had been working in my job long enough to have a payslip and I didn't want to go bothering Personnel again. I asked the slc whether I could send in my one payslip and a copy of my contract which contained all the salary and dates they could possibly need. They agreed.

I sent them copies of the above and heard nothing more from them, assuming my deferment had been accepted.

Several months later the phone calls started again and I thought it was about the one month's arrears - the only one I knew about - but they said I had 7 months' arrears. It is only then that it came to light that they were claiming they had never received my payslip and contract.

Just after this conversation, having changed jobs again, I sent them sufficient information for them to defer my account.

 

Since the above, I have deferred in time every year. There has been at least one occasion when they have claimed I've sent them only one payslip when it transpired that they hadn't scanned the two underneath... and other examples of incompetence.

 

Sorry for the wordy reply.

What do you reckon?

 

Thanks

Jayney

[noomill060]

Ok, sounds reasonable. When you write your PoC, working this into it after the claim for charges.

 

Do this by representing your above explanation in numbered, bullet point, continuing on from the charges reclaim section.

 

ie:

 

23) the Claimant draws the attention of the Court of certain arrears which the defendent (SLC) alleges it is owed by the Claimant.

 

24) The Claimant asserts that the Defendent is mistaken in this allegation and will put the Defendent to Strict Proof, and notes that in many years of harrassment, the Defendent has never sought a County Court Judgement in this matter, prefering to harras and intimidate myself into paying. the Claimant believes the reason no attempt has ever been made to pursue her in the Courts, is that SLC are aware that no debt is lawfully owed to it by the claimant.

 

25) The Defendent alleges that the Claimant owes arrears totalling seven months re-payments

 

25) The Claimant asserts that this is due to SLC's incompetant and unprofessional failure to ensure that they processed the Claimant's Deferment Form within the three months allowed by law. The Claimant asserts that the form was returned with the three months, any delay in processing being the responsibility of SLC entirely. This delay caused the Claimant's lawful application for loan repayments to be refused.

 

26) The SLC's attention was drawn to their error, but SLC choose to ignore it, prefering to use this as an opportunity to unlawfully harrass the Claimant for arrears which were not due, unlawfully debit disproportionate penalty charges to the Claimant's account for letters sent to the Claimant and proceed to unlawfully levy interest thereon, thus unlawfully and possibly fraudulently, increasing her alleged indebtedness.

 

blah blah blah...

 

 

 

Good stuff, eh

 

Oh, I LOVE sticking the knife into SLC, then twisting it, mercilessly

 

Just carry on in the same vein, or failing that, I'll come back and finish off for you.

Edited June 17, 2009 by noomill060

[jayney71]

Just a quickie, Noomill...

 

Again this whole thing's been on hold for a few weeks - MSc stuff and my life taking priority ....

 

In my letter before action do I set out all the numbered points or do I leave all that for the actual court summons?

 

Thanks

Jayney

[noomill060]

In your LBA you just need to say what you want in order to avoid the need for legal action- ie removal of all £20 letter charges.

 

tell them that they have 7 days to agree, after which time you will file a claim with the county court, which will include court fees and interest at 8%pa .

 

Post the LBA up here before you send it, so I can see if it needs tweeking.