to think that having a baby should not mean a trip to court

[bluewolf]

becos I was on mat leave my automatic repayments on student loan I had while doing teacher training stopped. Bailiifs tracked me down through my relatives to tell me I was in arrears of about a grand. Had some utter slimey shark then on phone trying to 'cut me a deal' where if I 'showed willing' by sending whatever I could afford he would send me the deferment form I should have got 9 months ago. Dodgey as fuck!!! Any one got any legal advice or something as 'what I can afford' is NOWT.

should have said - I will be in court if I cannot beg borrow or steal an amount that the bastard decides is reasonable. And set up a standing order while I wait for the deferment form to arrive. Is this not INSANE?????

have you phoned them direct? HAve they told you that you needed to deal wtih the balifs or did the baliffs just phone you out the blue?

Cos yes it sounds dodgey as fuck

did you communicate with teh student loans people when you went on mat leave to advise you would be deferring payment, or just stop paying?

did you not ask for a deferrment form?

did you not hear from them before this phone call?

i would deal with teh student loan company directly if possible, but if you are in arrears of 9 + ,months, then they might well be perfectly withing their rights to get the bailiffs on to you, especially if you did not defer your payments correctly......

so am not sure if YABU or not!

Baliffs phoned my uncle (he might have been a refference when i was applying for loan, not sure)...didn't phone proper student loans company cos the man said the debt had been passed out of their hands

I didn't think this sort of thing happened with student loans. You work, you pay, you don't work, you don't pay. I haven't paid anything since I went on Mat leave over 2 years ago.

did you communicate with teh student loans company directly or just stop paying? that is the key to it

Didn't defer the payment becos I didn't even think of it. I am stupid and it always happened automatically out of my wage packet.

then you are possibly in big trouble.

you cannot just stop paying

you have to defer it, that is why they got in touch with your guarantoor

did you have any letters or phone calls re the defaults?

The debts (from first hand experience with the crap student loan company) gets passed to another section of ..... the Student Loan company. They don't send bailiff's as they need a court order to do this. They can not obtain a court order without taking you to court. In order for them to do this they must notify you. Have you recieved no letters from them at all and did you tell them where you are? It normally takes them a while to pass your bits onto the debt department. (months, at least 8)

Lazy - teacher training is different - I've got other loans for doing degree and they havent bothered me becos I've never earned enough, but the teaching one , as soon as you get a job (even a couple of days supply) they deduct automatically (maybe cos I was working through an agency???)

YABU

It is your responsibility to inform the student loan company of your change in circumstances

they send a statement each year, and then ask you to confirm your salary etc

if they have got to the bailiff stage then this has been going on for a while

get to CAB and get some advice

check with the student loans company if the bailiffs who have contacted you are legit. you might be able to negotiate back with teh student loans company. offer a small payment and try to defer the rest

I haven't worked for over 2 years and as such have paid nothing to the student loans company despite having about £1000 left to pay off.

Didn't contact them or anything. although I have contacted them several times since just to update my address.

Is it definately the student loan company based up in Scotland? Or was it a separate professional studies loan from somewhere else.

I got into arrears when I had problems sorting out my deferment. Basically I'd missed ticking a box, and they'd left a message on my phone which I hadn't got. Anyway it was passed to a baliff, but when I looked more closely the baliff company was actually just part of the SLCO. So I just rang the SLCO and got it all sorted out very amicably. I've had to pay the money as I wasn't deferred for those months, but I've spread it over years and years, so it's very little per month. I really don't want to pay too much of it off as although we could afford to, I don't think I'm ever going to earn the amount where I have to, so I'm hoping it will get written off when I get to 60 or whatever age it is.

So my advice, contact the SLCO direct ASAP and see if there is anyway you can deal with them.

oh right, bluewolf. Sounds odd. I have had deductions from payslips in the past when working, then heard nothing when working stopped (not teaching though) and know nothing of a guarantor.

never meant to hijack, sorry.

I think I'm lucky in that in the days when I got my loans (97-01), they couldn't set up the thing to deduct automatically from your pay packets, so mine can only come from my bank by direct debit. Therefore I'm in control of what they're taking.

so basically I'm right in the shit and it's all my own fault. But aveanap this was a completely different company and nothing to do with student loans. The man started off by saying if I didn't pay 200 quid right then , then I'd be in court. Screamed, shouted made sure baby was audible gurgling cutely, got it down to 15 quid. Then he said before he'd even think about sending deferment form to me I'd need to set up a standing order. He suggested 70 quid. It was all just figures pulled out of his bloody head!!!! This is what makes me think this is utter bullshit

Ok. When did you last have any letters from them? Have you moved house? If so, did you tell them?

haven't had any letters - and they had my proper address becos thats where wage slips were sent. Had absolutely no warning this was going on otherwise obviously I would ve sorted it ages ago.