Student finance for 1st year denied based on cert HE

Hi there, I'm posting on behalf of my partner.
The context is that in the 2020-21 academic year he began a degree but dropped out by the end of the first term due to severe mental health issues, made worse by the covid-isolation uni brought on. Then, for the 2023-24 academic year he went to a different uni to earn a certificate of HE which he has just completed. For both of these he received funding from SFE.
He has now applied for his degree course at the same uni where he achieved his cert HE and has been denied student funding for tuition AND maintenance for the first year of his degree due to already having a qualification of an equivalent or higher level. We were under the impression that he would simply not have funding for 3rd year due to the 4 year funding cap and the entire past year none of the advisors he has spoken to have mentioned this technicality.
This is a pretty last minute revelation for us as we live in this city precisely because of our attendance at uni, and this could compromise both our abilities to live here and study. As mentioned, nobody has ever told us this, we only found out when his funding was denied today. Is there anything to be done about this? Were SFE always going to deny him and we just didn't know?
Thanks so much for any help

Hi there,
What degree is he studying? Is he doing a foundation year? Has he had any emails from us clarifying the ineligibility?
Thanks,
Ross

It was not a foundation year, he did a 1 year Cert HE for the 23-24 academic year, which was a level 4 qualification. He wants to begin a BA (Hons) Games Design course at the same uni for the 24-25 academic year.
The first we've found out about this is today as he has received an email from SFE saying he's ineligible due to already having an equivalent or higher qualification.

Thanks for confirming.
I'd advise for him to contact us directly so we can check the assessments. He can either, access the live chat function on his online account, or by calling 0300 100 0607.
Thanks,
Ross

We'll go ahead and make contact, thanks so much for the advice.