Student finance failures in the UK

Mods if this is in the wrong thread please move it:

Okay where to start.

I am 1 of 50,000 students who have had problems with their student finaces (loans and grants). This is due to the relocation of the administration of the processing information.

I have spoken to dozens and dozens of students who have had their application forms, lost , returned or processed wrongly.

Mine for example is somewhere in limbo. I do not know how i will survive over the next few weeks as i have a gut feeling that my form will be returned after reading my processing status online.

My online status reads as: 'To be completed' which translated means 'the student has begun to fill in the application but has not completed the application form', which is total bull, as i am always very on top of form filling and know that it was 100% correct when i sent it out.

The BBC is also detailing the situation, saying their might be a 6-8 week backlog, so that will be the end of October (providing my application is correct) although judging by my status, it doesn't seem like my status is positive.

news.bbc.co.uk...


Now my problem lies here. I have no money left in my account. I do not have people i can borrow money from as my parents are struggling with the economy at the moment. I do not know if or when my payments will be processed and to be honest i'm very upset and slowly running out of food.

I do not know if i can pay my rent on time, and this is also affecting me by causing me lots of stress.

I understand i can apply for a small loan from the university (£50) which will just about last me a week or two (and NOT six to eight weeks).

I have tried ringing the student finance company , but it used all my phone credit and i didn't get through to them, now i have no money to top up my phone. They have also removed their email address from the website and removed the 'live chat' interface.

I have a terrible feeling i will have to abandon my 3rd year of study and return home, which will sadden me as i've worked very hard to get to this position...

Is there anybody else who is in the same situation, if so - how are you dealing with this?

Any advice please......

I'm in my third year, and this is the first time I've had to use student aid of any kind... one week before class starts and no money.. 3 days before classes start I get a letter in the mail telling me I filled the form out wrong. Which is BS it was an online ap, how the hell can you mess up a step by step application?

Anyways, I had to drop two classes and pay it all in cash, not cheap and it pisses me off but what can I do eh?

I talked to the financial aid office, they are telling me they have had a 35k person increase from this time last year, siting the economy being bad, more people are going back to school and its overworking their staff. Possibly this is why the loans are taking forever and so many errors?

any way you could get a part time job? I had to do it at Uni ( I worked in a call center selling loans) It was pretty grim, but helped see me through the tight times. It's always good to have some of your own money and you wont get taxed on it.

Sorry to hear you are in the same boat as me.

I've also heard it's due to the LEA (local education authority) now choosing to not deal with the applications via the local council but instead sending all applications to one single governmental body.

I wish you luck.

Apart from getting a job, all you can do is beg the bank to extend your overdraft, get a credit card, do medical experiments (very popular where i went in Leeds) donate sperm.

Originally posted by woodwardjnr
Apart from getting a job, all you can do is beg the bank to extend your overdraft, get a credit card, do medical experiments (very popular where i went in Leeds) donate sperm.

The job situation is quite grim at the moment (although i had two jobs on my second year) but there's literally hundreds to thousands of applicants in this town to every job.

Medical experiments are a no-no, as my body is a temple and i don't like the thought of gambling with my health for material gain.

And sperm donation (despite being quite tempting) would also be a no-no for *cough*unspecified reasons. They wouldn't accept my sperm.

Credit cards i try to avoid too...

The job option is my best chance despite the odds.

Edit: Thanks for the suggestions

[edit on 21-9-2009 by mr-lizard]

Originally posted by woodwardjnr
Apart from getting a job, all you can do is beg the bank to extend your overdraft, get a credit card, do medical experiments (very popular where i went in Leeds) donate sperm.

Donate sperm? You can get paid to Donate sperm?


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