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Student Finance issue. Where to go from here?

I apologise in advance for the essay I'm about to write.

I originally applied to study at Royal Holloway and made an application to Student Finance which was processed and accepted, but I ultimately didn't get the results I needed and was rejected from Royal Holloway. At the end of October I was accepted to the Met Film School to start in February 2011. Knowing that Student Finance can be a little, um, leisurely in their processing times I made my new application for finance right away.

A few weeks later I received a letter from Student Finance telling me my application had been accepted. Great! Until I read the letter a little closer - though at the top of each page it gave the correct course and college (the Met), it then said a little later on the very same page that my Tuition Fees loan would be paid to Royal Holloway.

I checked through my application on the website and sure enough - everything said the Met Film School. When I rang them up, they agreed that everything had been filled out correctly and told me a new letter would be 'generated' with the correct details. A couple of weeks later I received exactly the same letter as the first.

After several phone calls with several slightly confused sounding people who passed me around various places and didn't really tell me anything useful at all I eventually I received a different reply: the money would be paid to Royal Holloway in February and that I had to phone them up and ask them to transfer the money to the Met.

There's so many things wrong with that I don't even know where to begin. First off, how about it the fact it's their job to pay it to the correct college, the college they had been asked to pay it to? There are FOUR months between my changing my application and my starting the course. How hard can it be to make the change in their system? Also, I don't know about you guys, but I had always been told you wouldn't receive the loan unless the college confirmed your attendance. In addition, I was sceptical that they would bother paying it to Royal Holloway (even if they ignored the confirmation of attendance thing) as the letter also said they had made a Maintenance Loan payment to me back in November. Nope. Na-da.

I sent them letter lying out my points. This morning I received the reply:

Thankyou for your application for student finance.

To assess your application we need the following information which you did not give in your application form.

We acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 15th December 2010 regarding the payment of your Tuition Fees to the Royal Holloway University of London. As you transferred to the Met Film School after the 01/12/2010 your fees belong to the Royal Holloway University of London and will be paid there not the Met Film School.

To allow us to process your application without further delay, please provide the information as quickly as possible. Until we have received this information we cannot determine your full entitlement to student finance.

So not only did they send me a template letter (wtf information am I meant to be sending them? I think none, I guess they just plonked a relevant paragraph in an old letter), but the paragraph they included makes no sense whatsoever:

I did not 'transfer' from Royal Holloway, I never attended.
My application was made and processed well before 01/12/10.

If there's anyone out there who managed to read through all that: where do I go from here? I start my course in less than a month. If I send them another letter they 'aim' to answer it within four weeks. If I call them I expect to get passed around again like before. Any brainwaves?

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 1

modgepodge

God they really are useless aren't they. Call up and ask for an email address to complain to. I did that, wrote an essay to the email address and got a reply from a human who knew what they were doing within a week or 2. My situation wasn't as complicated as yours however.

I cannot believe these people are trusted to hand out so much public money to the right people!

Reply 2

Taiko

What's the exact course you're on at The Met Film School btw, as not all their courses are designated for funding.

Reply 3

Soomka

Original post by Taiko

What's the exact course you're on at The Met Film School btw, as not all their courses are designated for funding.

The two year Practical Filmmaking BA. If it turns out after all this I can't even get a loan I'm gonna be even more annoyed.

Reply 4

Taiko

Luckily it's designated.

To get this resolved, I suggest you telephone SFE. What they need to do is to go back into your account where they did the transfer originally. Get them to delete that transfer, then redo it, putting the effective from date as the 1st September 2010. This should then release fees to The Met Film School in February when first payment should be made.

It seems what they've done is place the effective date as after the 1st December, which has caused the problem.

Reply 5

sfegod

Hi,

Did the original Uni confirm your attendance?

Reply 6

Soomka

@Taiko Thankyou, I will try this on Monday.

@sfegod Since, as I stated in my post, I never attended Royal Holloway, I would doubt it.

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 7

kpwxx

I'd say ringing is still the best bet unfortunately, basically, some people at their centres know what they're on about and some don't. Make records of who you speak to, when, and what they say, so if someone tells you it's sorted you can quote them.

I'd also mention that their letter implied they think you transferred but you didn't, then they will hopefully delete royal holloway and fingers crossed the system will sort itself out then.

I would also perhaps consider contacting The Met Film School and basically seeing if, as a future student, they can help in any way. At the very least they can be aware that you're having problems with student finance through no fault of your own, and they may then accept delays or issues.

Good luck, and don't give up, just keep on powering through.

xxxx

Reply 8

Taiko

They'll probably wonder how you know what I've said. Knowing the inner workings though, I know how that mistake comes about. I've seen it several times myself and had to correct it, and can sort of understand how it happens too.

Takes about 3mins to sort in full and approve for payment though, so shouldn't be much of an issue.