that this makes no sense?

[aufaniae]

DP is a student returning to university to do his final year. His couse is structured so that you do a 2 year Diploma, which he just completed, and then return for a "top-up" year which converts it to a BA Hons degree.

Student Finance England are requesting that he sends in proof of ID, and a declaration from a professional that he's who he says he is.

He sent this to them two years ago. They say they need it again as it's a new course. Which might seem to make sense on the face of it, but let's look at what that actually means ..

Firstly, DP is using the same log-in details with student finance as he did last year.
They are writing to us at the same address.
He is asking for the money to be paid into the same bank account.
His new course is at the same uni, in the same school.

For someone to pose as him, the impostor would have to have squatted his life! They'd need to have access to not only his his student finance log-in, his mail and his bank account, but also to manage to hoodwink people who have taught him for two years!

What's annoying me is they need the declaration (they didn't mention this previously, and it means we're going to be stuffed for money as the student finance will be late).

But the declaration is pointless IMO! If someone had managed to pull off squatting DP's life so successfully, a little matter of a form wouldn't make a blind bit of difference.

There must be loads of people in this position, thousands who are returning to do a top-up year who are having to prove who they are when SFE have seen their documents only 2 years previously.

It's bullshit IMO. A total waste of everyone's time.

I received a letter from Student Finance, 3 years after I graduated, to say a owed almost £3000 for an 'overpaid grant' and that they would start debt collection proceedings if I didn't pay within 14 days

It took me a year to sort this out (I didn't owe them the money) and more phonecalls, emails & letters than you can possibly imagine. There were times when I actually cried. It felt like psychological warfare and I was dealing with SUCH a bizarre & illogical system where they kept asking me for financial information from 5/6 years ago and then losing it or asking for something different..

One of my favourites was when they asked for child benefit letters from 2006 to prove I had a child. I was saying "but you KNOW I've got a child. You have 3 years worth of childcare forms that were signed by my son's nursery!". That wasn't enough proof. Or the time they asked AGAIN for my husbands income information from 2007. I said, "I sent it all by email to John at the appeals dept on this date". The reply was "John might not work here anymore. I can't tell you if he does or not. We are not allowed to access emails sent to the appeals dept." Me: "But you are calling from the appeals department!!

Eventually, out of the blue, I received a letter saying I didn't owe the money. No apology or explanation, despite the fact that their sect collection dept had been hounding me for a year.

So, no, you are definitely not being unreasonable.