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Leaving within first 3 months

Hi

I am thinking of leaving my foundation degree course (it started on 15/09/2014) Student Finance have paid my uni £1500 already. Would I have to pay this back straight away as it is within 3 months, i read some where that if you leave before December you are liable and have to pay immediatley (not after earning 21k etc) i also have a maintenance loan of £1468 would i need to pay this straight away also?
On a separate note i have a maintenance grant of £3309 which i know i have to pay back straight away. Do i only need to pay part of it? I am due another £3382 in January which i obviously will not take.
Can i pay back in installments ?

Thank You

Reply 1

Mark Lee - SFE Official Adviser

Official Rep

Hello,

Usually you would not be required to repay your loans immediately, however you may have to repay at least part of them before you apply for future funding, or they may be taken out of any future entitlement.

You are correct in that you will need to repay your grant immediately, if you leave your course your University will send us a withdrawal notice, once this is updated on our system you would receive a letter from us advising of your grant overpayment, asking you to contact our collections department to arrange repayment. Usually they are happy to set up a plan with you to pay off the grant in installments. This is also the case if you need to start repaying the loan before we will offer you any future finance.

If you are thinking of withdrawing from the course, it would be best to call us on 0300 100 0607 to discuss the process in more detail with one of out advisors.

Thanks.

Reply 2

SFEadviser

Hi

I am an adviser with SFE. And if you're thinking of withdrawing from your course and have already received first installments of your payments, you would be expected to pay these back.

If you have received any maintenance grants or supplementary grants then you will go into automatic grant over payment and will be expected to repay these ASAP, or you could repay this in installments, but you would be expected to make repayments to this.
As with your Support Loan and Tuition Fee loan, you will also go into overpayment and be asked to set up repayment options.

When you withdraw we assess your application from the start of course up to the day you withdraw, so you have been eligible for some of your payment but not all and it would be re-assessed accordingly.

Hope this helps, I am a current adviser within Student Finance England so if you have any further queries you can call 0300 100 0607