Erudio, arrears, re-payment schedule and telephone calls

[timetomoveon]

I have about £1400 of student debt from loans I had in 95,96 and 97.

 

I've always been able to defer.

 

Given that Erudio are taking housing benefit, maintenance, etc. into their calculations that takes me over their income threshold.

 

I sent back the old style SLC forms with a letter stating my concerns and requesting clarification over the new form.

They ignored the letter and just sent me another copy of their form.

 

My deferrment period is now up and they've since begun to take payments from my account

- without any notice of how much and for how long.

 

It appears they've worked out that I need to repay them back over the year and have taken about £110 this month.

 

From what I'd read about repayments I was expecting repayments to be related to a 60 month period.

 

What will happen if I cancel my direct debit?

 

My credit report has only just got out of the red and I don't want them to ruin my credit rating again.

 

Can they really take my housing benefit etc into consideration in their calculation of eligibility for repayments?

 

I'm currently not working so I have no earned income.

 

I always understood that to be eligible for repayments I had to be earning a wage in excess of £20k

 

In the past when I was working part time I never earned enough to have to pay my student loan off.

 

Even so, following a divorce settlement I paid over £3000 of it off when I didn't have to.

 

So I feel really gutted now that I appear to be being forced to repay money to a DCA.

 

I'd like to just cancel my direct debit and just forget about them. Is that possible?

[dx100uk]

cancel that DD NOW

 

 

if arrows didn't send you a letter TELLING YOU in advance

they were taking the money.

phone your bank and invoke the DD guarantee immediately at the same time.

 

 

if you've sent arrows the old SLC deferment form

and you don't meet the repayment thresh hold

 

 

they are taking the Michael and need reporting.

 

 

if you read the threads here you'll see they have been told by the authorities to stop these unfair tactics

and amend their DAF.

 

 

dx

[timetomoveon]

Thanks for your reply dx.

 

The thing is,

when they take housing benefit, council tax benefit, my maintenance etc into acount I do go over the deferment threshold.

 

I always throught repayments were based on earned income - of which I have none at the moment.

 

If they are entitled to the money,

I may as well let them take it.

 

It's annoying because they say they haven't changed the way they work

- that they work in the same way as SLC

- but by taking these benefits into account they have changed the repayment eligibility haven't they?

[dx100uk]

you are being had.

 

keep to the old SLC rules

 

get that money back!

 

so read the other threads here

 

dx

[Pluthero]

The current deferral threshold is £26,727 ? AND it will definitely go up in September this year.

 

From Erudio website : By law, and under the terms of your loan agreement, you are entitled to apply for deferment if your income is below the relevant threshold (currently £26,727 gross annual income)

 

Oh be sure to declare any money you have received from the tooth fairy too!

 

Seriously though I've been working on a one size fits all post for dealing with Erudio. They have invoked my wrath and I had some free time this week:) Its a work in progress so any suggestions are most welcome. Mods feel free to delete move if it breaks any forums rules.

 

First thing to be aware of is that ERUDIO are a DCA (debt collection agency) and are foremost interested your MONEY. They bought your student loans for 5p in the pound! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erudio_Student_Loans) This I argue is a great conflict of interest with their other purpose as the company who should be deferring your loans should you be under the repayment threshold!

 

They will be difficult/obtuse/horrible to communicate with in anything to do with deferment as they would love to put you into arrears, they want you to PAY and you being under the deferment threshold means they can't get PAID. It's not helped that their administration has been outsourced to Capita with their infamous abysmal customer service.

 

Be firm and tell ERUDIO the income proofs/documents/wage slips/tax returns etc were good enough in the past with the SLC (Student Loans Company) and the Original Loan terms still apply and cannot to changed or amended by Erudio. Here is the relevant section of the terms:

 

'The Education (Student Loans) Regulations 1998 State:

9. Each year the lender will tell the borrower the new deferment level for the period between 1st September and the following 31st August. The borrower can defer making repayments of the loan if—

 

(a) the lender has not already asked him to repay the loan in full, and

 

(b) he can show — (Not complete a DAF or let Erudio have access your entire financial history)*

 

(i) that his gross income for the relevant month is not more than the deferment level, and

 

(ii) if the lender asks, that his gross average monthly income during the 3 months immediately following the relevant month will not or is unlikely to be more than the deferment level.'

 

* http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/written_answers/1990/jun/19/student-loans

Extract from Hansard debate on student loans:

 

Mr. Andrew Smith : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if a student in agreeing to the terms and conditions of a student loan authorises the Student Loans Company to make future searches on their income, via employers and banks.

 

Mr. Jackson : The terms and conditions of a loan agreement will not authorise the Student Loans Company to investigate borrowers' incomes through their employers or banks. Borrowers wishing to defer repayments will be required to produce evidence that their income falls below 85 percent of national average earnings.

 

You are under no obligation to use Erudio's DAF whatever version they may bring out. You just have to show evidence that you are under the threshold to repay.

 

You are going to have to be firm in dealing with their Erudio's DCA tactics. If you are under the repayment threshold send the IDENTICAL information you sent SLC in the past, if possible get the old SLC form from the internet. Or you can use Erudio's DAF (send a cover letter stating to are not accepting any new terms) and erase the FPN (fair processing notice) and all other unnecessary information. They may reject this information, stick to your guns and resend the info with EVERY NASTY threatening arrears letter they will send. Then forget about them until next year's deferment and repeat until your 25 years/50 years of age loan expiry time frame is up.

 

TOP TIPS

 

Set up the 'read receipt' option with your email so you can Prove they received it!

NB; You must use recorded mail for your initial deferment documents and email the same info as back up! (Since privatisation the Royal mail has been quite bad at delivering mail to Erudio.)

 

NEVER EVER PHONE THEM! CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH!!!!!!

 

Put all your loan refs/name/DOB/Erudio ref numbers on EVERY email (create a template or cut and paste) you send them or they will claim they lost it or did not receive it or could not process it due to DPA or security reasons!

 

 

Can all people suffering at the hands of Erudio please report them to the:

 

FCA: [email protected] and the

FOS: [email protected]

And as its election year

Your MP.

 

 

THE GOVT TOLD US THE TERMS OF OUR LOANS WOULD NOT CHANGE. THE ERUDIO DEFERMENT PROCESS SURE IS A LOT MORE HASSLE/STRESSFUL THAN THE SLC PROCESS EVER WAS!

 

DON'T STOP FIGHTING FOR YOUR RIGHTS.

[renegadeimp]

Studio are a dca and cannot so anything unless you sign their new forms. Sign the old ones and they're screwed.

[jacobjones]

What is the purpose of having a yearly deferment threshold amount, when the agreement says they look at the three months after the deferment period. That's not a threshold, that's a future projection.

[Pluthero]

The threshold amount is set yearly at Sept. I always sent the SLC the three months wage slips before MY deferment date. EG I defer in MAY so they got feb/march/april slips. It basically establishes that you will probably NOT earn over the threshold in the three months after you defer. Would not be surprised if Erduio want wages slips from the future....lols

[WindySock]

It appears they've worked out that I need to repay them back over the year and have taken about £110 this month.

 

 

From what I'd read about repayments I was expecting repayments to be related to a 60 month period.

 

Yes that is a trick Erudio have been trying on.

 

Unlawfully trying to shorten the period of the loan in flagrant breach of the original terms.

 

Cancel the DD and claim them back under the DD guarantee.

[timetomoveon]

Thank you everyone for the replies.

 

WindySock, I was beginning to think it was me! I checked and double checked the paperwork and will go to my bank tomorrow and ask them to repay the money to my account - it is a minimum 60 month payment term. If I do need to repay they should only be taking £25 a month.

 

I still don't understand why Erudio are allowed to include state benefits in their calculation of gross income at the same time as saying that they haven't changed the way they assess for deferment. They are including as income:

Income support

Child Benefit

Housing Benefit

Council Tax Benefit

Child Tax Credit

 

SLC disregarded all of these in the calculation of gross income - and they are the reason why I'm now going over the income threshold - I never did before.

 

Going through the paperwork

I've just noticed that back in September 2014 they stated the monthly repayment figure of £110 in an 'Annual Statement'.

 

 

Sorry guys that I overlooked this and may have confused matters.

I don't think this does cover the notice period they are required to give me though under the direct debit guarantee

as they did not write to remind me of this amount 8 weeks prior to the end of my latest deferment period (which was 9th Feb).

 

 

They did write to me in December but the letter makes no mention of the amount that will be taken from my account

nor a schedule of the repayment amounts and dates.

 

 

So the direct debit guarantee does entitle me to a full and immediate refund of the amount paid because an error has been made.

[WindySock]

It's 60 months presuming you haven't paid off any already. Say if you had previously paid for 12 months the remainder now would be divided over 48 months.

 

But sound like you have the full 60 still to go.

 

Sure Erudio will blame it on an admin mistake, but they are always mistakes in their favour, so make of that what you will.

[timetomoveon]

Flip, no I paid over three grand back (I didn't have to either - I was still in deferment at the time). So that means they're right? That I owe them £110 a month?

 

Still don't know how they can get away with taking all these benefits into account.

 

They didn't send me a repayment schedule so I guess I can still ask the bank to reimburse me until they do. And where does it say that the monthly repayments change if you've already paid some off?

[timetomoveon]

By the way, I paid that money off in one lump sum. Does that make any difference ?!

[dx100uk]

By the way, I paid that money off in one lump sum. Does that make any difference ?!

 

 

was this paid whilst a current deferment was in operation?

[sri if you've said this already}

[WarrenBuffet]

The child benefit being used in calculations among other benefits has already been ruled upon. The child will suffer.

 

There are a few threads already that have touched upon your situation.

The one i remember was a mother who worked P.T. and this combined with her benefits,

led her to consider giving up work and going F.T. on benefits.

 

She was advised to write to her M.P. and state that when the Gov was forcing people off benefits and into employment.

Why was a Gov approved DCA being permitted to do the opposite?

 

The fact that you made a lump sum payment previously makes only that they reckon you are cash rich. ....IMO

[WindySock]

The child benefit being used in calculations among other benefits has already been ruled upon. The child will suffer.

 

Where is this 'ruling' against Erudio please? Thanks.

[WarrenBuffet]

Hi Windy, you have dx to thank for the change in the DAF.

 

 

He/She was the only one advising against signing their forms when every other website, including the BBC was advising that you sign.

 

Im not trying to be a smart ass, but how many other threads have you read on here?

 

 

If you study the first two pages, you will be armed with all the knowledge that you will need.

 

......Sorry! but i can't remember off the top of my head which thread it was but it did come up recently.

[WindySock]

Hi Windy, you have dx to thank for the change in the DAF. He/She was the only one advising against signing their forms when every other website, including the BBC was advising that you sign.

 

Not true. There was plenty of that advice (and still is) on the mumsnet forum, MSE forum, no2erudio site and others from the start right up until now, so that is not in the slightest bit true.

 

I have read the threads here and have not seen such a ruling against Erudio, hence me asking where that was?

 

If there was such a ruling I would be very pleased to see it.

[timetomoveon]

was this paid whilst a current deferment was in operation?

[sri if you've said this already}

 

dx

Yes, I had some money from a divorce settlement and rather than take a holiday etc I decided to clear some of my debt

[WindySock]

From what I recall of the regulations, an over payment during deferment would result in a reduction of the monthly sum due NOT them number of repayments, but it would not be recalculated and applied until the following September.

[timetomoveon]

Thank you WindySock. It was over ten years ago that I made the payment and looking at the credit agreement you posted on another thread it simply says that there is 'no penalty' for an early repayment. So I think I am still entitled to the 60 month installment period.

[dx100uk]

so if the bulk payment was all that time ago surely it makes no odds at all now

 

 

go get those DD's back!

 

 

dx

 

 

 

 

dx

[WindySock]

1998 loans:

 

You can at any time prepay any or all of the loan, without penalty. However, if you

make a pre-payment of part of the loan, we will not change your monthly repayment

amount until the September which follows the prepayment. If you want to repay the

loan in full you can ask us for a written statement telling you the exact amount you

need to repay.

 

The very fact that paying a bulk amount off would change the monthly payments means the original term of the loan must be staying the same. So a smaller amount spread over the original number of payments.

 

If paying a bulk amount off means you spread the remaining loan out over the original number of payments, the Erudio are taking the pee and trying to pull a fast one here.

[brassnecked]

Serious complaints to the Financeil Conduct people, and your MP. State benefits like IS, HB, Child Benefit etc, and DLA?PIP should never be used or regarded as income for calculating thresholds, SLC always disregarded them.

[WindySock]

It was, or at least should have been, only disability and related benefits that were excluded by SLC. It is only those that are excluded by the legislation and loan agreements.

 

The current excluded list SLC are using to decide deferments for shared borrowers are:

 

Personal Independence Payment, Armed Forces Independence Payment, War pension, Long Term Incapacity Benefit, Short Term Incapacity Benefit (at the higher rate), Employment and Support Allowance

Severe Disablement Allowance, Disabled Persons Tax Credit, Industrial Injuries Benefit, Disability Living Allowance, Severe Disability Premium and Disability Premium

 

Which is the same as it always was, adjusted for the fact that names of some types of benefits change over time.

 

BIS statement from last year confirmed that:

 

Inclusion of benefits in income calculations:

 

The definition of gross income (for the purposes of MS loan deferment) is prescribed in the Education (Student Loans) Regulations 1998. Benefits such as housing benefit, working tax credit and child benefit are included in the calculation of gross income for the purposes of applying for deferment. However, disability related benefits are excluded from income calculations.

 

Class training manuals from SLC also confirm that.

 

Whether SLC always applied the exclusions properly is another matter.

 

In fact it seems they didn't in a lot of cases, hence the quite frequent and understandable cries of "SLC never included those".

 

Now what would be interesting to see is if there is a case where someone can prove that SLC always excluded those for them, and can now prove Erudio are including them, then can that fact be used?