Massive student finance account problems - please help!

I've posted on here before - I'm a MBBS student who intercaled a PhD between years 4 and 5 of my course. I recently applied for student finance again as an undergraduate continuing student for my 5th year as I return to my medicine course after finishing my PhD.

I originally made an incomplete application with the wrong details (with my mum's address, who has recently moved to Scotland) as I didn't realise as I am over 25, I will have to apply as an independent student now anyway (I have, and have always, lived in england). This incomplete application locked me out of my applications completely, with a message saying as I lived in scotland, I have to apply to SAAS. I found out this was incorrect, and never opened an application or account with SAAS.

I phoned up several times in May and they said they would refer this application for deletion and this would fix the problem so I could apply online again. This never happened, and the application was not deleted. They said I had to delete it, but I have no access to the applications on my online account, and my address on the system is correct to my england address. I was advised to make a paper application, which i did.

It has now been 6 weeks from that application, and nothing has changed on my account, I still can't access it and have not had any updates. I called up again, and they now say that they need the incomplete application deleted before it will show my new paper application on their system - they never mentioned this in the 6 weeks processing time prior when I called up many times to see if there was an update on the progress of the new application. I've now been told to wait till friday to see if the incomplete application will be deleted. I don't believe at this stage they will actually do this as it's been refered to be deleted back in May and never was. I need the new application to be processed, to confirm the reduced rate maintenance amount they will pay me, and I need the letter from student finance to apply for my NHS bursary funding as well, which this has also really delayed.

I feel I've been treated very poorly through this process, and have no confidence they are able to fix this account error, I start my course again in less than a month, and I will be relying on money from student finance england and the NHS bursary to fund this - is there anyone else I can call, ie, the admin team for student finance directly, as whenever I call the helpline they say they are unable to solve these problems? It is also now outside of the 6 week application window and they haven't given me any updates on my new application.

Reply 1

Drew SLC

Official Rep

Hi there,

We are unable to access accounts on the student room and you can only contact our advisors either by call or on live chat if you are given that option on your online account. I would advise you to wait till Friday if that was the date you were given for your next update. If you do not have an update then you can contact us again and even ask to speak to a manager if you are still not getting help.

Thanks, Drew

Reply 2

telepathicturtle

Original post by Drew SLC

Hi there,
We are unable to access accounts on the student room and you can only contact our advisors either by call or on live chat if you are given that option on your online account. I would advise you to wait till Friday if that was the date you were given for your next update. If you do not have an update then you can contact us again and even ask to speak to a manager if you are still not getting help.
Thanks, Drew

I've gotten my uni to start chasing it as they can call student finance directly. It seems the phone helpline is very ill equipped to deal with any account problems as they can only refer these to other teams and then can't tell me why the problem wasn't solved when they said these referrals would fix it. Really shocking the amount of stress and worry this has caused.

Reply 3

David SLC

Official Rep

Original post by telepathicturtle

Hi there. Sorry to hear that this issue is still ongoing at the moment. If you would prefer that we discuss this with your University you can contact us on Live Chat or over the phone and set up a "Consent To Share" which will give the University limited access to your account when speaking to us. Thanks. David