Student finance for January starters whose second year starts in September

Dear Student Finance England,

Please advise me on how to apply for my second year at uni as I am having trouble doing so at the moment. My situation is the following:

I started uni in January 2020 (with no prior studies so no loans used before) and had applied for tuition fee and maintenance loans and picked the 2.5 year-long-course from the online options available as that was my case. I received a calculation with 3 installments for the academic year 2019-2020 - one in January, one in April, and one in September. Then I applied for year 2 and my finances were calculated for the same months - January, April, and September (no September start for year 2 was available for my chosen course). That was all good, however, my second year at uni started in September and since I received my last payment from year 1 then I thought everything is ok with uni too but they have sent me an email that my fees for 2020-2021 are outstanding and I do not know what to do now.

I have sent the uni an email asking whether I should edit my online application or I should leave it as is since the fees are the same over the length of the course they just come at different times but nobody has responded to me for more than 10 days and there is no phone contact with the finance department now due to everyone working from home.

I really need advice - should I change my application to the September intake course with the same code G400 which would mean there will be an overlap for the term September-December? Also, would such term overlap mean I could have been overpaid for year 1? Or should I leave my application as is (having the first payment for 2020-2021 in January) and wait for the uni to respond. I am asking as if I edit it now and it was not needed it will take more than 6 weeks to be reassessed according to the SFE website.

That's all. I am just confused on what to do as the Student finance website is organised by terms not years and my first year involved studying over the summer which is not an option on the form online. I just need advice on what is the standard practice for January starters (in year 1) whose second year starts in September as I thought I did everything right but now that email with outstanding fees is really causing me anxiety.

Thank you in advance for your help - I really appreciate it and clearly need it right now.

Kind regards,
Kkonni

P.S. I have completed my year 1, have not withdrawn or anything - it had just been taken over the summer and it finished on 13th September. My second year started on 14th September.

Hi Kkonni, a returning applicant is not allowed to change seasonal intake on our systems. If you start in September then your payment schedule will still match the January schedule. The only way to change seasonal intake to September is by withdrawing from the January course and starting a new course in September but that's not something we recommend.
Thanks, Isaac

Hi Isaac,

Thanks a ton for the reply!!! I kept looking for information online but this particular start is very peculiar. I think I have messed up my application and will email the university as I have "withdrawn" from my first course as I panicked (not proud of it but did want to be kicked out of uni ) about the outstanding fees but I am still on the same course. I just did not know what to do.

Thank you again for your help, will try sort things out now.

Many thanks,
Kkonni

You're welcome. I hope you manage to resolve this and I hope you have a lovely evening.
Thanks, Isaac