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Student finance ruined my life - which legal sphere do i need to consult to sue them?

What I am primarilyasking is 'What legal sector do I need to consult in order to getjustice I feel I am due for the grievances against me by both StudentFinance England and the University of Manchester' Please be awarethat, such is the epic screw up on SFE's part, the document detalingthis issue spans 20+ pages with about 30+ pieces of documentaryevidence.

Solely due to mistakeson Student Finance England's (SFE) part I had to drop out ofUniversity on TWO occasions. Firstly at Manchester and secondly atthe University of Leicester.

Timeline

September 2009 –started at UOM – Before attending University at age 24 I hadsubmitted evidence that I had been independent of my parents for 3years (since was 17 in reality, so 7 years) thus guaranteeing themaximum allowance. My first support payment was clearly the basicamount and at this point looking for assistance from UOM I foundnone. UOM had cancelled all student finance support and wereunsupportive to the point of dissmissive. The help I received afteran hours queing was a phone shoved in my direction and SFE's number.
I called SFE who toldme I was 8 days too young to be automatically classified a “MatureStudent” (I turned 25 on the 9^th of September).Presumably this is why I sent the documentation 4 months before. Inthe end, they forced me to get my parents to fill in documentationabout their earnings and they concluded in approx December that thisdid not change my entitlement.

February 2010 -I was approx £750 behind with my accommodation fees and I had spent100's of hours trying to get them the info to prove my status asindependent. Due to my being behind I could not register for thefollowing year's courses, arrange accommodation for the followingyear and UOM refused to release a £1500 grant to me as I was behind£750, even though it would have paid the shortfall etc.

April 2010 – Feelingcompletely despondent, unable to organise the next year, choose mycourses due to the accommodation debt, I left UOM and returned to myhome-town of Leicester.

June 2010 – StudentFinance contact me to state that they recognise my status as a maturestudent 10 months after starting University, and 2 months afterhaving no option but to leave. My exams had passed.

January 2011 – Mydaughter is born.

Early 2011 – I applyto the University of Leicester (UOL) and get accepted.

October 2011 – Ibegin University of Leicester, my daughter attends the UniversityNursery.

1^st semester– SFE mistakes cause problems with the nursery payments and grants,I become very familiar with the staff at the Student Welfare Office,Julie Boggon and Adrian Gascoigne. In complete contrast to UOM thesepeople are amazing, I cant speak highly of them enough. Everythingsent to SFE goes through this office recorded and documented, thepeople in this office were fantastic, supportive and gave you theirtime.

October 2012 – Ibegan this year having to provide evidence to SFE of my previousyear's income (much like everyone else). Because I had been such aregular in my first year, and my myriad of problems with SFE so far,I consulted UOL's Student Welfare team, who were happy to help andsend the documentation via recorded post.
November 2012 – SFEwrote to me stating that I had not provided the information required,they were stopping all payments including the Nursery payments for mydaughter and also claiming back all the payment for the previousyear. They sent me a letter stating I owed them in excess of £20,000with immediate effect.

November 2012 - March2013 – I spent hours upon hours in the Student Welfare Office everyweek with Adrian Gascoigne (who was sympathetic and completelybaffled like me) attempting to sort this out (The evidence sent wasrequired to be the original documentation, we could not sendduplicates). Every day I had to take my daughter into the UniversityNursery (who were partly independent) every single day knowing that Iowed them (by the end) £4000. They were understanding, but themanager, had to keep asking me when we were going to pay up, and Ihad no answer.

In February, I had anaccident in my car, it was wrote off, I had no money to replace itand taking my daughter on 3 buses to uni and then 3 buses back wasdifficult and expensive. Obviously, in the end, I had no choice, Ihad no money, I couldn't keep leaving my daughter at the nursery (andit literally killed me to take her out! She loved it there) we werebroke.

July 2012 - Once again,SFE got back to to let me know that they had MIS-PLACED all mypaperwork for 10 months and just located it.

I was fuming, I wroteup my entire experience (20+ pages) of the previous 3 years, gatheredall the documentary evidence (30+) I had and sent it to SFE,Financial Ombudsmen (never heard back) and my local MP. I receivedhelp from Keith Vaz MP but the best SFE could do is send an apologyletter stating they accepted blame for losing my paperwork, (thoughthey attempted to deny responsibly for my experience at UOM) andoffered me the pathetic sum of £500 compensation.

The stress andfinancial hardship of the past 2 years had doomed the relationshipwith my daughters mother to failure and we split up in September2013.

October 2013 -Penniless, I accepted a job with my friend driving all over thecountry and and moved to London into a flat with another friend.

******* Since leavingUOM I had been in sporadic email communication with their collectionsdepartment who said I owed them £3000 for accommodation (theycharged me for the whole year even though I left early). Every time Iresponded that I accepted I owed them £1500 as they did not pay the£1500 grant (see above), money they would have received from SFEonce they accepted I was an independent mature student after I left,I did not accept the £3000 figure.

May 2014 – I received(what I now know was) a CCJ for the amount of £3000+ from UOM. Isent a letter to the court explaining the situation, and UOM acceptedthe £1500 on a payment plan of £100 per month. I thought theiracceptance meant I did not get a CCJ... I was wrong. I cannot evenget a savings account, let alone a bank account, a loan or rent aproperty. I managed to get a really great job in finance in London atthe same time, the CCJ nearly cost me my job! 2 weeks earlier and itwould have!

January 2015 – Ireceive a letter from SFE stating that they will start taking moneyfrom my wages in April 2015. I also found out that my flat I share isbeing sold by the owner, due to the CCJ I will not be able to rentanywhere on my own merit. (a CCJ makes you financially untouchablefor 7 years!!!!!!!!)

If I factor in the next7 years, Student finance and Manchester University have gone out oftheir way to make my life hell for 13 years. They will begin chargingme for support/services they completely failed to provide in threemonths. I refuse to pay for it! Why should I? They even admittedtheir incompetence in writing! As I see it, I got a decent job inspite of them, and have only been punished for trying to obtain aneducation. I should sue them for every year they have screwed my lifeup since I should have first graduated based on my current salary. SoI should sue them for £280,500 which isn't even including the stressI've felt, the break-up of my relationship, the fact I barely see myfavourite person in the world (my daughter) any more. All as a directresult of their mistakes. And I have an official letter stating theydid this!!!!!!

So.... if anyone candirect me to the correct legal department to sue SFE for destroying ahuge chunk of my life, I would really appreciate it.

Reply 1

Mark Lee - SFE Official Adviser

Official Rep

Hello,

Very sorry to hear about the circumstances you have detailed above.

I can only provide information about currently available student finance on this forum, unfortunately I can not provide legal advice.

If you wish to carry out legal action, you would need to contact a solicitor or a Citizen's Advice Bureau for more information.

Best Regards

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