The Student Room Group

Argh!!

Thought I had my student finance sorted but now they've thrown a spanner in the works......!

I am 24, and had been working for approx 3 years before the start of the course. I applied as an independent student, but due to not having P45s and P60s from 2005 I had a hell of a time proving it. It seemed like it wasn't going to happen, so I wrote an email complaining. I got a very helpful reply back from a lady, sent in some alternative evidence direct to her, and recieved an email on 29th Nov to say the evidence was fine and so she'd fully means tested my application as a self supporting student. I recieved support notifications dated 29th Nov with extra loan, grant of £2900 and a bursury from the uni of £1800. I have already had close to £2000 of this additional money since then.

Today, I recieve a letter dated 6th Dec saying I am not considered an independent student as I have not been supporting myself for long enough before the course started. WTF? This comes a week after notifications etc have come through and after I've recieved money. Is this just an admin error or should I be worried? Have emailed the lady who sorted it all for me, but I doubt she'll get it til Monday, and I don't want to call as I'll just get some incompetent idiot who doesn't know my case.

Am really worried and annoyed, either way this is going to ruin my first weekend of the holidays, just as I thought I had it all sorted :frown: Does anyone in the know understand what's happened? Am kind of inclined to just ignore the letter - I've had some money, I've got notifications etc. But I'm terrified as I need that money to pay rent etc and I definitely can't afford to pay it back :frown:
Reply 1
Original post by modgepodge
Thought I had my student finance sorted but now they've thrown a spanner in the works......!

I am 24, and had been working for approx 3 years before the start of the course. I applied as an independent student, but due to not having P45s and P60s from 2005 I had a hell of a time proving it. It seemed like it wasn't going to happen, so I wrote an email complaining. I got a very helpful reply back from a lady, sent in some alternative evidence direct to her, and recieved an email on 29th Nov to say the evidence was fine and so she'd fully means tested my application as a self supporting student. I recieved support notifications dated 29th Nov with extra loan, grant of £2900 and a bursury from the uni of £1800. I have already had close to £2000 of this additional money since then.

Today, I recieve a letter dated 6th Dec saying I am not considered an independent student as I have not been supporting myself for long enough before the course started. WTF? This comes a week after notifications etc have come through and after I've recieved money. Is this just an admin error or should I be worried? Have emailed the lady who sorted it all for me, but I doubt she'll get it til Monday, and I don't want to call as I'll just get some incompetent idiot who doesn't know my case.

Am really worried and annoyed, either way this is going to ruin my first weekend of the holidays, just as I thought I had it all sorted :frown: Does anyone in the know understand what's happened? Am kind of inclined to just ignore the letter - I've had some money, I've got notifications etc. But I'm terrified as I need that money to pay rent etc and I definitely can't afford to pay it back :frown:


if you have been self supporting yourself for the 3 years prior(earning over £7500 pa if i remember correctly) and then sent in the evidence and was told it was fine with the money and award notice being released then it SHOULD be fine. When i worked for them i noticed alot of letters were sent out wrongly. best thing to do is to phone them up. even if the agent you get is clueless they can still check what your account is saying your entitled to; still showing the £2906 grant. Also they should be able to see if the payment dates are still approved. so best to phone up and try get some peace of mind before you get an email back
Reply 2
Original post by YerMah
if you have been self supporting yourself for the 3 years prior(earning over £7500 pa if i remember correctly) and then sent in the evidence and was told it was fine with the money and award notice being released then it SHOULD be fine. When i worked for them i noticed alot of letters were sent out wrongly. best thing to do is to phone them up. even if the agent you get is clueless they can still check what your account is saying your entitled to; still showing the £2906 grant. Also they should be able to see if the payment dates are still approved. so best to phone up and try get some peace of mind before you get an email back


thanks for your reply. I have definitely done 3 tax years earning over £7.5k (considerably over). However an actual 3 year period was a bit hit and miss - 2 solid years then months here and there, with a period of unemployment, but cos I was living off savings not claiming benefits that caused a problem. They didn't seem interested in that though, just 3 tax years with over £7.5k which I definitely have - they've seen p60s for 08-9, 09-10 and my p45 from sept 2010 (I earned over £7.5k between april 10 and sept 10 so she said that should be fine). Yea have had award notices, there's no change in circumstances and I ahven't lied or anything, so can't imagine why its changed. I can only hope it's an admin error.

I have emailed the lady who sorted it out for me (think she must be someone fairly senior) so hopefully she'll get back to me on Monday.

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