The student finance people are demanding MY customer reference number to support my daughters application - I took out one loan on paper in 1992

[CottonOn]

I of course have no idea what it is. It says it doesn’t matter how long ago it was and to use the customer number I was given even if it was completed ‘on paper’ (it was) The website says NO when I give it my ID details and tells me to call a 0300 number at 16p per minute and tells me the wait is at least 45 minutes. I’m not even in the UK this month so it will be astronomical. HELP! This can’t be normal - what am I missing? Other than ancient documents? I can’t see any other way. My husband is going to have the same problem.

No it isn’t, this is for the parent. The system need, you to have your own CRN as the parent, but they want you to only create a new CRN if you’ve never had a loan yourself.

My loans were from the 90s too but at some point I did have an online account for the purpose of deferring. However I can’t log into it anymore for some reason - maybe as it’s paid off.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65a94464ed27ca001327b264/sfe_pff2_form_2324_o.pdf

This is the form to print out

I think I might have committed a faux pas by quoting people based on a comment above? It seemed to be the best way to reply to a specific message - apologies if I’m not doing it correctly

Thank you Nicebloomers - I’ve been very glad and grateful to you and to learn this without the long phone calls!

They said to me its this one for starting this year.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65afcca870218e000cb41f9a/sfe_pff2_form_2425_o.pdf

You’re very welcome. I almost lost my mind going round in circles with the phone line. Another ‘world beating’ service the govt is providing lol

Yes! Sorry i linked the wrong one. This is the correct one.

Just to add - make sure you print out the right PFF2 form. The one we found on the SFE website was OUT OF DATE and we had to do the whole thing over again.

It's the same every single year, the availability of technology just seems to have made the system far worse than it ever was with paper forms in the 90s.

No it isn't, why do people keep telling the OP she is wrong???

Lots of people have this same problem. If you call Student Finance they do help you locate it.

They will need to keep that information, Some of these loans are 30+ years and only kick in at certain income points. Add into that the number of students deciding they don't need to bother to pay, so that information will still be active after retirement age as the govt desperately (and quite rightly) does what they can to get those LOANS repaid.

You can also type in that form and then do save with changes. They told me to email it.

Don’t panic too much about the timing. The deadline is for it to be guaranteed, however each year many people apply far later and get it sorted in time.

SLC are somehow bafflingly inefficient and efficient at the same time. It’s an arse to set up, but the vast majority do get the money when they need it.

(Also this is where free overdrafts on student accounts can come in handy - not a long term solution, but can be enormously helpful when rent and loan payments don’t quite line up)

I had this last year and phoned them up and got my reference number. Then I found some paperwork from 30 years ago and indeed I still had all my student loan letters. This year I'm having to forward my birth and marriage certificate even though I provided my Decree Absolute last time around.

Thanks to everyone that’s helped out so far. I can see the form I need to fill in - just on the off chance is there anyone that knows a shorter cut? Seems a bit daft. I’ll crack on though

This might sound daft, but they are responsive to Twitter DMs during office hours. You might wait a few hours between responses, but they will get back to you.

They told me to e-mail it back but there's no e-mail. So useless.

Oh thanks for this. And the whole post OP. Good to know this may affect us next year. My paperwork is long gone too.

I have just uploaded that form via DD's account as advised when I managed to get through to someone on the phone. He also gave me an address so that I can request my account is reset. No idea why I would need to do that but I am doing as I am told.

I've just gone through this too - 51, small loans in the 90's, no paperwork remaining as I paid it all off 20 yrs ago. It's such a terrible system, but the second time I got through to a human being they were helpful (first was useless) and managed to sort it all fairly quickly once she accepted who I was and added an email address to my account. Can't believe they don't have a smoother system as there must be tons of us who took out loans pre Internet.
I also tried saying 'no' to the initial question, but as soon as you add your dob and NI number the system flags you up anyway.

I've just been through all this today as well. Bloody nightmare. I was a student from 1995-1998. Of course I haven't got any paperwork left! We've all Marie Kondo'd since then haven't we? Had to hang on the phone for about 25 minutes before eventually speaking to someone. I almost laughed when the woman said "there isn't a mobile phone number on your account". No - I didn't get a mobile phone until 1999!

She gave me my old CRN and said I would receive an email allowing me to reset my details. That was 5.5 hours ago and I haven't had the email yet. FFS today's been a shitshow and this has just added to the stress.

I had the exact same problem but got a very nice lady who told me to ring my local Education authority student finance department and explain to them. I rang and they said no bother just go online and download an FFP2 form, fill it in and post it back to them with the relevant documents. P60 etc. Very easy in the end

I had trouble getting our info to support my Dd's application online this year. Not sure what was going on with them. I ended up on the phone, it was answered right away. Luckily I had mine and Dh's numbers written down from last year. They emailed me the form to fill out online and a link to send it, and they had sent last years forms so had to do it all over again. It was a mess. But I finally got both lots of info onto her account and she got her email a few days later.
Good luck with it all, I hate this stuff.

they’ve sent me the email multiple times but it’s never arrived so I did the paper form in the end…