Problem with university place and finance

[Orangesandlemons77]

DS is due to go to uni after the summer, after deferring his place he accepted and having a year to work. He definitely accepted the place, deferred with UCAS

He's just applied for student finance and got 2 letters, one saying he is getting zero, the other saying they are stopping his funding, from the student loans company, as he is no longer on a course?

Anyone know what could have happened?

Have you supported his application?
I rang them yesterday to clarify something and the wait time to speak to someone was about 4 minutes. I'd give them a ring as that sounds odd.

I did get an email about it and filled in my info but DH missed it. Hope that has not messed things up. Yes we will try and ring them on Monday.

We have this every year. They are absolutely awful. They say I haven't provided the income evidence. It's all there on the portal, uploaded the same day it was requested. Then they said I have a tax code that indicates more than one job.... but ignored that i supplied 3 p60s because I do in fact have 3 low paying jobs.... all of which come in below the threshold. Impossible to speak to anyone. Now they have slashed the entitlement for next academic year and demanded repayment of a substantial sum for last year. I earned 13k from three jobs last year so obviously inside entitlement thresholds.... they are utterly incompetent and completely unhelpful.

Give them a call. They are generally quite helpful but your DS will need to make the call as they won’t talk to you about specifics without completion of a permission form, which took us ages for them to acknowledge and accept.

@TiredTeaBag I agree, it's an awful system and we have had problems every year too. DH is currently stuck in a loop of "you need to enter your info" and "you can't enter your info because you've already done it". He'll call them but knows from experience how difficult that's likely to be.

Did he apply for finance last year? 'Getting nothing because he is no longer on a course' sounds either like he applied last year but because he (naturally) never enrolled anywhere for any of the three terms, sfe assume he hasn't actually gone to university because he didn't turn up when he should have done, not because he wasn't due to start yet anyway.

Alternatively, he hasn't accidentally applied for funding for 2023/2024, has he? The two years' applications are both 'live' at the same time for a while.

If he was assessed as eligible for a maintenance loan, but one or both of the people he nominated as supporting him didn't complete their part of the application, the notification would be that he would be getting the minimum loan amount, not 'zero' - if one is eligible at all, one is eligible for the basic, non-means tested amount.

Or it could just be a random error. They do seem to have had some issues with the system this year.

No, it would be his first year next year. I'm just hoping he still has his university place :-(

My daughter once got three letters from them on the same day. One saying she would get nothing, one saying a reduced amount and one saying the full amount. It's probably worth phoning them as the automated systems often don't work.

It could definitely be that his 23-24 application is still active.

Otherwise the messages they've sent are very odd. It sounds like they think he's already done some of his year and dropped out.

It is so very complicated. I just took over DD and dp's bit and had all the stuff sent to my email address and I deal with all of it.
I needed "by 31st May" (and they sent me 10+ emails telling me, getting ever more menacing) to upload my actual earnings for last year. As some is salaried and some is self-employed, I haven't got the self-employed confirmation yet. Hence my phone call. To be told "yeah, no probs, just upload it when you get it and if you haven't uploaded it by Feb 2025 we'll send out a reminder. After all the "do it by 31st May or else" messages.

The people dealing with it are lovely, and so patient, but the system is shocking.

Finance and his uni place are totally separate so don’t worry.

You can make an application before even having an offer so it's not that he hasn't got a place.
Give them a ring - their computer system is appalling.

OK thanks

DH did try and put his financial info in the other day and it said it couldn't find our son's information, that was with student finance.

I guess we will need to start again or something

Is it too late to start again?

OK we will do that on Monday

Thanks that is something to think about. Wouldn't that mean he would have been given the funding last year though? It's so confusing.

No, he would have had a confirmation letter / email, but the actual money isn't paid unless the student is confirmed as having enrolled.

Surely though @ASighMadeOfStone for a maintenance loan above minimum application for a Sep 2024 start Student Finance want 2022/23 income details not 2023/24. Your self-employed income presumably required a tax return for 2022-23 to be submitted by 31st Jan 2024, so you should have had all the info needed to hand for at least four months.

Household income is usually based on earnings for the previous tax years (2022/23 if you're applying to study in 2024/25). https://www.sfengland.slc.co.uk/include-household-income-in-your-student-finance-application/#:~:text=More%20information%20about%20student%20Finance,study%20in%202024%2F25).

No, what they want is the confirmation of income 23-24 as when I submitted last year's application, I knew I'd earn less this year, so did a Current Year Income form as well, estimating my income for 23-24. And now to make sure last year's loan wasn't too much, they ask for the proof.

Your DH will probably need to fill in a paper form and upload it to your DS account.
Definitely call them on Monday.
It's definitely not too late to get things sorted.

Ah yes I see what you mean. That makes it a lot less straightforward for you.

Give them a ring. Can you see Dh's late submission info?
Later once this finance part is sorted, get ds to also check his uni place aswell.

DS has done an online chat with the student finance and it seems it is about his deferred entry which seems to have caused confusion.

Now we have new emails about giving our financial information which I have dine my part of and DH will do later so hopefully it will be OK.

Good news!

I hope so!

We're still having problems uploading the form / it not connecting to son's application. Does anyone have the contact number please as can't seem to find that either, thanks.

It's 0300 100 0607.
Do you have Facebook? I've messaged them a few times on their FB account (directly on their timeline, not in a message) and they're pretty good at answering.