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EU Student - Student Finance Issues

Hi everyone

I'm an EU student who has been resident in the UK for over 3 years now. I have been accepted to my universities of choice with a local student fee plan.

I applied for my student loan recently (via Student Finance England) and initially I provided bank statements as evidence. These were accepted, but I only sent bank statements starting from the 17th September 2013, so they contacted me asking for proof that I was resident between 1st September 2013 and 17th September 2013.

Fair enough, they want that extra half-month of proof. So I send in another set of bank statements which encompass those dates. These bank statements were swiftly rejected on the basis that they didn't have enough transactions on them to be proven valid (even though these were the same bank statements, just with a few extra months tagged onto them).

I then sent in a utility bill that encompassed those dates. As I was 16 and living at home at the time, naturally they were in my parents' names. So I provided a letter written and signed by both my parents, acknowledging that I was living with them at the time that this utility bill was printed.

Once again, it was rejected. I've sort of run out of options at this point. I was advised to send GCSE certificates, but I didn't do my GCSE's here. I was also advised to send a letter from the head teacher stating that I was at the school at that point. However, I only started at school in UK midway through September 2013, taking me back to square one.

I then contacted them again, but they brushed me off on the basis that these decisions were made 'on the assessor's discretion'.

So I'm stuck. The universities had absolutely no problem accepting these pieces of evidence. I have sent them everything I can from their 'accepted list', yet they were still rejected, because whoever was looking at them that day decided they were just not 'valid enough'. I honestly feel like I'm being cheated out of going to university, because I am fully aware that I am eligible for student finance - they just aren't accepting any evidence confirming it.

Has anyone else had troubles similar to mine? Does anyone have any advice they could give at this point? I appreciate any feedback!

Tl;dr: Student finance isn't accepting any of the valid forms of evidence I have provided them with - any advice?

Reply 1

Klix88

As an EU student, you will automatically qualify for the Tuition Fee Loan. You only need to prove residence in the EU, not just the UK. SF have a formal appeals process, which I suggest you now use.

Unfortunately, the rules regarding the Maintenance Loan for EU students changed in March. You now have to prove residence in the UK for five years before you can get the Maintenance Loan.

Reply 2

christopherson

Oops sorry, I forgot to mention that I am an EU citizen, but I was in South Africa before. I only moved to the UK and therefore to the EU in May 2013. I will take a look at the appeals process, thank you!

Luckily I applied just before that threshold was implemented so my application is reviewed on the basis of the previous threshold.

Reply 3

Tiger Rag

Have you tried phoning them?

Reply 4

Cristina Bohan

Hey, I would like to know what have you resolved as i am literally in the same situation as you as they are asking me for proof from the 1 september 2013 until 16th september 2013.

I just want to know how have you resolved the problem if you did.

Thank you

Reply 5

christopherson

Hey Cristina. After a lot of fuss and effort, I managed to resolve it.

In my case, the only other proof I could find was email conversations between my parents and the school I was going to start at. I then wrote a letter explaining why I provided this evidence, and listed all the previous pieces of evidence that I had provided, along with a description of why a 16 year old won't have a lot of listed bank transactions and won't have his name listed on a utility bill.

I think this did the trick because compiling references to all the pieces of evidence I had provided into one letter showed whoever was looking at it that I had a pretty solid case for being eligible to receiving student loan, and whoever kept rejecting my stuff didn't really have a valid reason for doing so.

What evidence do you have for that date range? :smile: