Being asked to send passport by post

For my student finance application, I have been asked to provide evidence for immigration status because for some reason they think I am an immigrant when I am not. I have always lived in the UK and my place of birth on my birth certificate, that I already provided as evidence, shows I was born in the UK as well. I also gave my passport details when applying, so why am I being asked to send in my physical passport by post as evidence? Im confused about what to do here, because www.gov.uk says not to send the passport itself.

Hi,

I would recommend ringing student finance England directly on the number on their website and confirm wether this is true as it could be a scam!

Good luck,

Thank you for replying. I don’t think it’s a scam as I have already called them about this, and was told to send the passport by post. The person who picked up didn’t really explain why when I asked about it so I’m still confused. Shouldn’t my UK passport details and birth certificate already be sufficient for evidence to show that I am a UK citizen and not an immigrant?