Mahala v Student Loans Company

[mahala]

I'm sending the DPA letter to the SLC today. I dread to think how much I have paid in charges over the years, much of which was a direct result of incorrect information from them.

 

Will let you know what happens.

[mahala]

Received a response to my DPA request this morning:

 

Dear Mahala

 

LOAN ACCOUNT NUMBER: XXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXX

STUDENT SUPPORT NUMBER: XXXXXXXXXXXXX

 

I write to acknowledge receipt of your payment of £10, which has been passed to our Finance Department and duly cashed.

 

In accordance with section 7 of the Data Protection Act 1988 we will despatch a copy of your file within 40 calendar days. This information will be sent to you by special delivery on or before 12 June 2006. We will confirm the delivery date prior to sending.

 

If in the interim period you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact .

 

 

Yours sincerely

 

Moira Miller

Customer Assistance Co-ordinator

 

 

 

So, no quibbles over what needs sending, which is refreshing. However, they seem to have decided that the 40 days to comply runs from today not from 27 April when they received the request along with payment.

[mahala]

I got a letter yesterday telling me when my statements would arrive. I assume the point of the letter was to let me know when to expect them since they would require a signature.

 

Unfortunately, the letter told me they would arrive on 13 May. They did arrive on 13 May, but as they required a signature and I was not at home to receive them (having not received the prior notice .... ) they were taken away again!

 

I will go to the local sorting office tomorrow and pick them up. Fools!

[Guest Lueeze]

Well better to send them like this than to send them to wrong addresses/or in brown half eaten envelopes like some people...

 

At least you know they are safe...

[mahala]

It's not them being sent Special Delivery I was questioning, more the fact that they said they would confirm delivery date in advance and that confirmation arrived in the same post as the statements.

 

I know its not a problem really, just a bit of a hassle to get down to the sorting office before they close at 1pm.

[Guest Lueeze]

LOL! How ridiculous! From your post i didnt realise thats what happened!

 

Yes they are FOOLS!

[mahala]

OK, I have got the info that SLC has sent to me. It very confusing to say the least. It seems they have decided to supply everything they have about me from 1998 onwards (my first loan with them was taken out in 1993).

 

They have done this by way of printing off screen shots from a computer. Many items appear with a scroll bar, and there are screen shots of the scroll bar at various points - some completely random. Some sheets have been printed off with the scroll bar moved just enough to move one item off the screen, some it has been moved screen by screen rather than item by item.

 

They have included 4 A4 pages of "commonly used abbreviations", of which only one appears anywhere on the information. The abbreviations that are actually used do not appear on the list at all.

 

They have also included "all" the notes written on my account from phone calls etc. I am suspicious that not all notes are there and some things are incorrect.

 

One of the notes makes reference to a £25 charge which would now be added to the account, as it was not added at the time of the offence. There is no mention of said charge in the list of transactions. (But the list of transactions is also presented as screen shots from a computer screen, and there's no real way of knowing if everything has been included, due to that scroll bar ....).

 

In all the information supplied, there are only 3 charges listed, totally £36. However, I know that the charges changed to £15 and then to £20, and I'm sure more charges were added. On statements of accounts sent to me during the course of the loan, charges were totalled and the amount listed and it came to more than £36. What I don't know is when the charges were made. As it is I'm going to have to go through and carefully check that there are no missing bits from these screen shots. Talk about making it difficult for me. If I get chance, I'll scan some and post them so you can see what I got.

 

Do I have a case for asking them to supply the rest of the information back to 1993 or do I have to make a new DPA request do you think?

[Guest Lueeze]

Well they only have to keep info for 6 years so you may not have any joy, also Statute limitations say you can only claim 6 years.

[mahala]

Well they only have to keep info for 6 years so you may not have any joy, also Statute limitations say you can only claim 6 years.

 

Isn't it 6 years from when you found out about the offence? ie I found out that the charges were illegal last month, so I have 6 years from then to claim?

[Guest Lueeze]

well, we are still discussing that fact, but by law they do not HAVE to keep your records longer than 6 years, so they probabally wont supply them in any case.

[mahala]

Having thought about this over the last few days, I have written the following response:

 

 

Dear Ms Hardie

 

 

I am in receipt of the documents you have supplied in response to my DPA Subject Access request dated 25 April 2006. The disclosure of personal data is incomplete and I find that the documents sent do not comply with the DPA in that they do not meet with the requirements of section 7 (1) © of the DPA. This requires that all data should be communicated in an intelligible form.

 

I have made the following observations and require the following action to be taken to remedy the problems:

 

• There are no transactions relating to the account xxxxxxxxxxxx whatsoever. Please remedy this at once.

• You have sent copies of the loan agreements for Account numbers xxxxxxxxxxx and xxxxxxxxxxx. Neither of these agreements is legible. Please send legible copies of the loan agreements for all three loan accounts.

• The documents relating to screen notes appear to be incomplete. Please send copies of all notes added to my account.

• The list of charges and transactions appears to be incomplete. Mention is made in screen notes of transactions which do not appear in the screen shots of the transactions histories. Please supply a complete schedule of transactions and charges for all accounts.

• Data supplied in the form of screen shots is unintelligible, since different pages have been printed in different ways. It is impossible to clarify whether all data is present. As I am not familiar with the Line of Business Applications which you are using I find that is it impossible for me to interpret these screen shots accurately. Further to this the list of abbreviations supplied does not contain the majority of abbreviations used. Please supply this information in an intelligible form.

• Mention is made of an amount being written off, but no details are supplied which make clear whether this actually occurred. Please supply full details of this matter, including account balances before and after the event.

So that there can be no further question of whether data is complete, I request that you supply data from the opening of the first account (xxxxxxxxxxx) to the present day, in a form which complies with section 7 (1)© of the DPA.

 

Please supply the requested information without any further delay. You now have 19 days left to comply with this request. Should there be any further attempts to delay compliance, I will be left with no alternative but to escalate this matter into an official complaint to the Information Commissioner and/or County Court action under section 7 of the Data Protection Act 1998.

 

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

 

Mahala

[mahala]

Received this from SLC this morning:

 

 

Dear Mahala

 

Loan Account Number: xxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxx & xxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

Thank you for your letter dated 8 May 2006.

 

Further iformation will be sent to you by Special Delivery on 25 May 2006 you can therefore expect to receive your information on 26 May 2006. Please note a signature is required for this type of delivery. If you are not available a card will be left asking you to collect the package.

 

I trust this is satisfactory.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Ann Hardie

Customer Assistance Team

[mahala]

Received the promised package yesterday:

 

Dear Mahala

 

Loan account Number xxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxx & xxxxxxxxxxx

 

Thank you for your letter dated 19 May 2006. I will address the points you have raised.

 

1. I apologise if the transaction details were not enclosed for your Income Contingent Loan. These are enclosed.
   
2. I am sorry that the copies of your credit agreement were not clear. I have managed to obtain a clearer copy of the credit agreement for your 94 account which I have enclosed. A credit agreement is not signed for income contingent loans. The customer signs a declaration when completing their loan application form and I have enclosed a copy of this.
   
3. Please clarify what appears to be incomplete regarding the notes screen.
   
4. You have stated that some transactions are mentioned on the screen notes that do not appear on the transaction history. Can you please identify this matter further in order that I can assist you. I enclose a pre paid envelope for your response.
   
5. I am unable to provide you with another type of screen prints. All prints are taken directly from your account as they appear on our system. The list of abbreviations we enclosed is fairly extensive. Please advise which of these you wish clarified. I await your response.

Yours sincerely

 

 

Ann Hardie

Customer Assistance Team

 

 

 

Now, I have several issues here, but as I'm supposed to be packing to go away, I'll be brief.

 

A credit agreement is not signed for income contingent loans.

 

Well I've read the declaration I signed when I took out that loan and it says nothing about repaying any money. It says I will tell them if I am absent from the course the loan applies to for more than 60 days through illness, or absent for any other reason; if I leave or stop attending or am expelled from the course; if I transfer to a different course or university; if I repeat any part of the year. It also says that if any of the above happen I might not be eligible for any outstanding payments due to come to me and that I might have to repay part of the "support" I had already received.

 

Noweher on the declaration is the money referred to as a loan, but as "support". now I'm guessing I'm missing a trick here somewhere - is ther ea special law surrounding these Income Contingent Loans - because on the face of this declaration they couldn't ask for a penny from me!

 

 

The other issue I have the transaction histories I've been sent. I've these twice now, and there seems to be an inconsistency.

 

The first time, I counted only £44 charges in 13 years. £20 of this occured right at the end, when I changed bank accounts and messed up and missed the last payment of the loan. As soon as I got their letter, I called, explained what had happened and paid the remaining balance there and then. The lad refunded the charge. The transaction history confirms this. That leaves only £24 of charges in the other 12 years.

 

Several years ago I was getting letters stating that there were over £40 of charges on the account - so where are these charges?

 

The second set of transaction history I received has the same charges on, but mysteriously, every one of them now shows as having been refunded at, or close to, the time it was issued. What's going on?

 

 

I need to go through everything with a fine toothed comb now, but this will have to wait at least a week. I get more concerned about the state of affairs at the SLC the more I read!

[mahala]

Have finally managed to decipher the reams of info sent and found that they only chargedme £24 after all! Still it's worth claiming back - all adds up when you put it with the rest I'm claiming back from elsewhere.

 

Initial request for payment goes tomorrow.

 

I may still write to the IC because I'm still not sure what they sent could be said to be in an "intelligible form". We'll see.

[mahala]

Have received a reply to my payment request. Are you ready for this?

 

ACCOUNT NUMBER: XXXXXXXXXXX / XXXXXXXXXXX

 

Thank you for your recent correspondence.

 

We will conmact you as soon as possible regarding this matter.

 

If you require further information please contact us on 0870 242 2211.

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

Angela Hart

CORRESPONDENCE DIVISION

 

Was it worth waiting for I ask myself? Seems to me that they have no idea what this is about and are playing for time while they work out what to do,

 

LBA goes on Tuesday, so they best get their skates on!

[Giveitback]

muppets.. how is this going? From what Ive seen, the SLC aren't governed by the CCA, which might ruin the whole, "actually, this is unenforceable" argument.

[mahala]

This topic was closed on 09 March 2019.

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