Are Student Finance Making People Homeless?
Who are Student Finance?
Student Finance are a government branch that award eligible UK residents with the right to a government loan. This loan will be split in two sections; a tuition loan (covering course costs) and maintenance loan (covering living costs). These are paid to students in instalments throughout the academic year. Receiving financial aid is often the determining factor for whether or not applicants can pursue a degree, as costs involving a university course are so high that self-funding options may not be realistic. In fact, as of this month, November 2024, the tuition amount has even seen an increase from £9,250 to up to £9,535. While it may be possible for students to work alongside a course to pay the fees required, this is often not an option due to factors like personal dependents, course intensity or course placements, in which the student will be required to work full time without the benefits of a salary. At the very least, it is not reasonable to imagine that the majority of students could afford this, and with costs of living steadily increasing, Student Finance are the only resort some students have.
Accepting My Application
In my own case, I returned from teaching abroad with a passion for education and five years of teaching experience, and after a few months of soul-searching I made the decision to enrol for a PGCE course with Northumbria university, which also awarded a QTS. The PGCE (Post-Graduate Certificate of Education) is the theory work behind teaching, whereas a QTS (Qualified Teacher Status) most commonly signifies that the applicant had undergone a practical placement in schools. Upon completion of the QTS course the graduate will be considered a fully qualified teacher, and therefore have the right to work in any schools in the UK. Due to my time abroad I had a bounty of experience in teaching, but although this was an attractive feature of my resume, UK schools couldn't hire me on this factor alone - a QTS was crucial.
Student Finance reviewed my application on July 23rd this year, and on July 31st I was elated to find that the maximum tuition and maintenance loan amounts had been awarded. The promised amount was confirmed, set, and ready to move into my account at the beginning of my course. Money would not be a stressful factor for the academic year, and my entire focus could be directed at my studies - something that wasn't the case for my undergraduate degree years prior. Moving into a student flat was something that I was also anxious to do, and calculating rent costs found that it would be possible to move in a few weeks earlier than initially planned, so that I could spend a few weeks moving in and acclimating to the new area. I paid money from my personal account to do this, satisfied that the loan would be more than adequate to cover these costs in the long run.
Declining My Application
The following month, Student Finance altered their decision. It was explained to me that they hadn't followed the correct process, and that the money was mistakenly awarded to me. Applicants need to have been a resident of the UK for three consecutive years prior to application, and while this can be overlooked in certain cases, they didn't think that my evidence supported that. Of course, I had mentioned this to them in my initial application, but the glaringly clear and evident Chinese characters in my previous address form must have been overlooked by a particularly haphazard worker. This meant that I wasn't guaranteed to be able to afford my course, my flat, or livelihood, and furthermore, I'd have to wait another 6 weeks to find out the result of the re-evaluation. This date was then moved back multiple times, from the 5th September to the 19th September, then the 20th, and then the 23rd, and finally to a time in early October. This was a huge cause for concern, because I'd have to start my course in mid-September without even knowing if I could pay for it, all the while living in a student flat without being able to work full-time to pay for it. Student Finance had potentially made a weighty £20,000 error, and I was in the firing line.
Naturally, I called Student Finance several times to try to resolve this (there is a 30-45 minute waiting time to get through to them per phone-call), but they informed me that there was no way to speed up the decision. When I asked for a manager, they refused. When I told them they had no right to refuse, they put me on hold for an hour. They then said a manager would call me back within the hour, and there was no follow-up call. So I'd call again, and the process would repeat. By this point I was nearly sick with anxiety, and the stress of not knowing what to do was mounting. My university couldn't help me with the course costs, and I was informed that if I started the course, someone would have to pay for it, meaning that if Student Finance eventually said "no", I'd be hit with the bill for a semester's learning (around £3,000), and have to drop out regardless. On top of this, because I lived in student housing, if I wasn't a student I'd have to immediately vacate the flat. I also received a letter from Student Finance saying I wasn't enrolled with my university, which although erroneous took my university and I a month to settle with them.
Eventually, on my first day of study, I had to make the decision to withdraw from my course. The university had sent an email stating that there would be no tuition fee charge if I dropped out that very same day, but after 24 hours a fee would be applied to my account, with the onus on me to pay it. This meant that in the space of a few days I went from a university student pursuing a career I was desperate for, to being jobless, losing my study path, and being evicted from my student accommodation.
Are Student Finance Making People Homeless?
Now is where the title comes into play. I had already spent thousands under the assurances of Student Finance, and was quite deep into my overdraft. I had informed my work that I would be unavailable for weeks while I accustomed myself with student life, and had no expected income outside the loan amounts. Now I was out of a flat, temporarily out of a job, and out of study. I had nothing. In some circumstances, this could have been an extremely dangerous state of affairs. Student Finance don't know me, nor do they know any of their applicants. They are an impartial loans distributor, and as such they didn't know that I had parents to go back to. I would be tempted to argue that this situation is not an isolated incident. In fact, it is all but certain that this case isn’t unique. In Student Finance's own words, the team encounters similar scenarios all of the time, with students sometimes having funding withdrew at the very end of their studies, owing thousands due to Student Finance’s oversights.
If this was just a regular company, you could argue that mistakes happen. However, Student Finance are an official government branch who are responsible for the livelihoods and futures of an entire younger generation - futures we take on a lifetime of debt for. Yet, these issues are commonplace. Imagine that? A government branch should be a symbol of integrity, doing things the right way, yet it has consistently awful reviews on trusted websites, and a satisfaction rating similar to scamming and cold-calling agencies. A similar branch, the CSA (Child Support Agency), was closed down, with the CMS (Child Maintenance Service) taking its place. Both branches received equally poor reception, with the CMS showing 100% of ratings falling in the 1-star category on Trustpilot. The reviews are worth reading, and I would encourage you to take a look.
Customer Complaints
Eventually, enough was enough, and I submitted a formal complaint with the customer complaint's team. They take up to 20 working days to reply to new complaints, but the response I had was comprehensive. They admitted to the following wrongdoings:
• Failure to request crucial documents.
• Failure to respond to documentation in time.
• Failure to explain a system error which stated I had withdrew from my course.
• Failure to raise a referral in a timely manner.
• Failure to send information to the correct department.
• Failure (twice) to have a manager call me back.
The customer complaints team offered a £300 reimbursement, which reluctantly accepted. Despite the disheartening amount of money offered as reimbursement, dealing with the customer complaints team was like a breath of fresh air. As evidenced by all of the wrongdoings above, the core team don't know what they are doing, and the managerial chain think they're above talking to callers. The complaints team were refreshingly competent. However, it is a worrying prospect that to get anything done, a formal complaint must be made, especially when student loans, livelihoods and academic futures are on the line. While the amount of people who hold a degree has seen an incredibly steep increase over the years, with the hassle of dealing with Student Finance to counterbalance the fee of tuition, as well as the lack of other options, it would not be a surprise to see students be less inclined to pursue a university course in the future.
