What's the most you can owe student finance?

[WhoeverYouWantMeToBe]

I already have a very very large amount of debt from first round of studying I did in my early 20s when I had a DH and young DC. Decided stupidly the resulting career wasn't for me, so quit and walked into an admin job. The wages are such a pittance I have only ever had a max of 10 pounds a month deducted from my pay to go to student finance so debt hasn't even gone down due to the interest.
I'm now a single parent, DC is 9yo. I'm scared that this is it for me now, I'm stuck in a full-time job I loathe unless I win the lottery, save up a ridiculous amount of money to pay for the fees or find a sugar daddy I don't even know what my 'dream' career is, but had a nosey on OU website plus my local college and uni - all the courses that interest me cost thousands of pounds. Even if I decided what I was aiming for, how could I fit it in when I still need to work full-time? I really want to change my life but feel a bit alone and stuck.
Is there anything I can do?

I don't know the answer but my younger sister has gone back to university to study nursing having not paid a penny off her student loans from the first time round (full loan each year for four years) and isn't having any trouble with funding now. Why not call the SLC and ask?

Thankyou Hermione. That's similar to me, I had full funding for 4 years I think.

Don't think there is a maximum you can owe but there is a max amount (or number of years) you can borrow

whoever how many years study did you do previously? You're entitled to the length of your course + 1 year. So for example if your course is 3 years, you'd be allowed 4 years funding. If you've previously studied for two years, your new course would only be funded for 2 years. Unfortunately part years count as full years in terms of finance. So if for example you did 1 full year and then quit part way through October in the 2nd year, you'd have still used 2 years finance if that makes sense.

First time I went to uni I lasted all of 3 weeks - total wrong course for me - yet still had that counted as one year finance.

Btw think nursing is different as funded by an NHS bursary. No idea on the rules related to that so if nursing is what you want to do / did first time around, best ring student finance.

Sorry, should probably read all replies before responding. You've said you had four years funding - so did you get the degree? As far as I'm aware, you can't get funding from student finance if you've already obtained a degree. Have you looked into a professional development loan? Can definitely use them for postgrad but I'm unsure on undergrad courses. What about doing OU part time around your work? A colleague of mine did his OU degree around full time work, think he took about 5/6 years to get the full BSc. You would have to fund it yourself that way but spread out with full time work it may not be too bad.

I got the degree but only the BA and not the honours. Does that still count? Looks like OU might be an option, the courses are so expensive though.

If you already have a degree, SF will only fund specific degrees - usually NHS degrees such as nursing.

If you didn't graduate, you're entitled to your course + 1 year. It's backwards loaded. So if your course was 3 years, you'd be entitled to 4 years finance. If you studied for 1.5 years, you'll have used 2 years funding, so you'd have 2 years left - and they'd fund the last 2 years. You'd need to finance the first. They count part-completed years as fully years.

The OU did used to offer separate funding, but it's now through SF. You can self-fund, though.

Cross-post, sorry.

No, it doesn't matter if you didn't get the honours. It's just having a degree that stops them from further funding.

The OU course pricing has changed due to the new policies. It used to cost a certain amount per module with prices varying depending on the length/level/number of credits. Its now changed due to the new policies and is £4500 per academic year regardless of how many credits/modules you do that year, whether its 15 credits or 120 which equates to full time study.

There's financial support available but I'm not sure if you'd qualify as you already have a degree.

Thanks for the helpful replies. At least I know where I stand now. I guess it makes sense that funding/loans stop once you have a degree or there would be no stopping people from being students til they're 60.

If you already have a degree what about a masters? You can fund these (usually) from a career development loan (Barclays, Coop) and it saves you from selling your soul to the Student Loan Company.