Student Loan Appeals, appalling service .. Your experiences please

Long story short , my appeal for funding was rejected . They are rejecting funding on the basis that I need to study at above 25% intensity , and finish within 4 years .. I believe I had compelling reasons for appeal , since this study period was mostly during the covid period .. Changes in my workplace , bereavement and mental illness ( depression ) caused me to have authorized breaks, hence why the course took longer than 4 years ( should be finished in 4.5 years total )
When it came to enrolling on my last trimester ( Im due to graduate in July ) I was told student finance would not award payment .. I was already enrolled and as a result I took out a private loan to pay the university . Even worse , somehow SFE decided to retrospectively pull funding from a previous study year (2021-2022) , due to the 25% intensity threshold for that year .. So it will end up costing me around £2.6K on an emergency credit card
Appeals
So I sent my appeal in , detailing the chain of events, covid breakout, change of working circumstances , being signed of work for metal illness .. I enclosed doctors notes , sick notes , prescriptions .. I even included the last conversation with my friend whom passed
Even after eight weeks, I had no reply from SFE , not even an email to confirm the appeal was received .. Over the weeks, after several phonecalls I was told the appeal was rejected and an email would be processed .. They would not even give me a reason why
Conclusion
I am appalled why SFE cannot even give me a reason , specifically why my appeal was denied . For example maybe SFE required more evidence of reasons for extenuated study .. Though nothing , SFE just simply relayed the same reason why funding was rejected ( studying over 4 years & less than 25% for one study year )
So now I am thinking to re-appeal , I understand a second appeal goes to independent assessors and or the board ? After that a third appeal , is this worth pursuing? I am wondering if I need to re-write the appeal differently or seek some advice elsewhere
If anyone can give me their experience with SFE appeals , please tell me . Was there any difference between the first and second appeal ? Was the second appeal won , if so what were the contributing factors ?
Many thanks in advance