The Union of UEA Students has sent a letter outlining UEA students’ complaints to the Chief Executive of the Student Loans Company, copying in the Vice Chancellor of UEA, Edward Acton and the MP for Norwich South, Charles Clarke. [See below] Last week the Government announced an investigation into how the student financial support system worked at the start of this academic year.

Natasha Barnes, the Communication Officer for the Union of UEA Students said: “We’ve had a large number of students coming to us in the past few weeks making complaints about how their financial support has been dealt with.

At the start of what, for the majority of students, is an already stressful time, it is unacceptable for the Student Loans Company to deal with students in this way.

We’re happy that an investigation has been announced and hope that future students will not be affected in the same way.”



19/10/09

Re: UEA Students and the Student Loans Company

Cc: Professor Edward Acton, Vice Chancellor, UEA
Charles Clarke, MP for Norwich South

Dear Ralph Seymour – Jackson,

I am writing on behalf of UEA students who are deeply concerned by the inability of the Student Loans Company to efficiently process their applications for grants and/or loans.

In the comments that we have received from our membership, four broad concerns emerge:
• Applications for finance have been delayed because documents have been lost.
• The telephone and email system to deal with applicants has been overwhelmed.
• Inaccurate documents have been produced or mistakes have been made.
• Applications have been held up for an unreasonable amount of time.

I have attached excerpts from students that reflect these concerns. Officers from the Union of UEA Students also surveyed nearly four hundred students during the week beginning 28th September and only 42% of students agreed with the statement “accessing financial support like grants, loans, bursaries and scholarships has been easy.”

For a significant number of students, this has meant financial hardship at the start of the academic year. One student wrote:

“I have recently started at the UEA as a first year undergraduate, and, like many of my peers, I am yet to receive any money whatsoever to support my studies or even to aid my travel into the University. To add to this, I am from a very low income background, as well as suffer from poor health and severe depression. With the added stress of the appalling work by Student Finance England, it has made me, and others in my position, suffer greatly - as if we need any help feeling down and ill.”

I am delighted that the Government has announced an investigation into the problems that occurred this year and I hope you will do all you can to ensure that similar problems do not occur next year.

Yours in unity,

Natasha Barnes
Communications Officer 2009-10
Union of UEA Students


Appendix – Selected UEA Students concerns with the Student Finance England

A) Applications for finance have been delayed because documents have been lost.

“In two separate incidents they've lost my passport details and my sponsor one evidence (even though they wrote to my sponsor to thank her for sending it). Sent Sponsor 1 evidence in again in June / July. They've only just noted that they've received it, in the last week (I had to chase to find out).”

“I also applied for a grant as my combined parents’ yearly earnings barely reaches £15k. I sent off evidence for their income back in May. My mother’s was processed fine, but they lost my father’s evidence and they failed to let me know.”

“I started applying back in May. After about a month of not hearing anything we phoned up to ask what was going on, and was told that none of my documents had been scanned into the system. They had lost them. Amongst those documents was my full handwritten birth certificate. We then sent off a second set of documents, and once again didn't hear anything for a while. I then received a letter telling me that if I didn't provide my passport details I would not be allowed any student finance funding. A little panicky, we phoned up again, explaining that I do not HAVE a passport, and another mini birth certificate had been sent in with the second set of all the other required information. We were then told that they had received all items they needed, APART from my birth certificate, despite it being in with all the other documents.

When the birth certificate was returned, it was accompanied with a second document, which we had never been told we had to fill out. It was a document I needed to take to someone to confirm they'd known me for at least 2 years etc, to give me a reference if needed. We got this done and sent it back. It came back AGAIN only a week before uni began, with another copy of the document, but no details telling me how the previous document was incorrect. We guessed, and I asked someone else to fill out the form.”

B) Inaccurate documents have been produced or mistakes have been made.

“I have still to receive anything yet from Student Finance England. They told me I was going to get a basic loan in my first week and then the rest of my entitlement later on, but as of yet I have heard nothing. I rang them last week and they told me I should be receiving a declaration letter in a few days but I haven’t had anything yet. I have been given contrasting information about when I will get anything and what i need to do. They have lost form, and made mistakes on my application causing it to take even longer.”

“I was never sent the confirmation of my loan for this year and have only just received it. Weirdly enough, I received the original (which they said was sent in May) and the replacement yesterday, sent to my Norwich address, which I had only supplied them with about a week ago.”

“I have had terrible problems with student finance, my loan still hasn't even been approved because they keep telling me I’ve sent them the wrong evidence, highly frustrating!!”

“I'm still waiting for my student loan! I'm into my third week now. I applied early, got nothing for a long time, then got a letter saying I had applied for nothing. I had to fill in a few forms to change this and now I am apparently waiting for them to confirm my NI number and confirm I am actually at University.”

“I am emailing you regarding to the financial issues. I have received my money but my tuition fee might be paid to University of Warwick even though I informed Student Finance England at least three times that I am at UEA. It is really worrying me but I hope they will finally sort it out.”

"I finally got my loan a couple of days ago. I applied online and they were meant to mail me a form to sign. They sent it to my old house so I called and asked for another one. That never turned up.”

C) The telephone system to deal with applicants has been overwhelmed.

“Must have made between 20 and 30 calls in total. Over the last 8 weeks I've probably spent an average of 20 minutes per call (5 -8 calls) on the phone waiting to be connected and that's when I can actually get in the queue. (If there are too many people waiting they don't even give you the option).”

“I've called them every week for 6 weeks and after holding for an average of 40 mins per call, all i get told is we’re working on your claim, contact us again in 7-10 days!!!!!"”

“I ring and they just put the phone down on me. I think it's disgusting really.”

“They don't communicate with you and are very difficult to get hold of. The phone lines are always busy and the website is often down. It is very hard to find out what stage your application is at."

D) Applications have been held up for an unreasonable amount of time.

“I continuously rung through June, July and August for them to repeatedly tell me to not worry and they were still processing applicants from May. It was only till early September that one of the operators told me i should re-send it in. Now i am having to wait till mid October to receive my grant, and even then it is not guaranteed. Money is a real struggle at the moment and has made the University experience far less enjoyable than what i should of been.”

“My dad spoke to student finance yesterday [5/10/09] and they told him that at the moment they are dealing with paperwork from the 27th July. I applied for finance at the beginning of May but I had to send updates in August. I haven’t heard anything from them, letters or emails, or had any money paid into my account, so I’m guessing it will be Christmas before any loan comes in if they are dealing with applications from nearly three months ago at the moment, so I don’t really know what to do about my rent.”

“I still haven’t received my finance from student finance, they are saying it’s going to take another 3 weeks even though i applied for my loan 4 months ago!!!”

“I haven't received my loan yet and I applied in April. Haven't heard anything from them yet.”

“Hi, I have had loads of trouble with student finance. I first applied in February for my student loan and tuition fee loan. When I hadn't heard anything from student finance for about 4 months (by June) I rang them. They then informed me that they hadn’t received my mother’s financial evidence, that was in the same envelope as her p60, which, she had got sent back to her. So it became obvious that they had been careless with my mother’s information. As they claimed to not receive the evidence, they put me down as receiving the basic loan not based on household income, which I didnt want as I am entitled to more.”

“Just wanted to inform you that I have still not heard back from Student Finance England. My last correspondence which I received from them was a letter dated the 15th July. Saying they have received my application and my information was being processed!!”

“My mum tried to download another evidence form from 'my correspondents' on my account page, but it wasn't working as it was under maintenance. So she went onto the main website and downloaded the form from there. She then sent it off again with a letter saying that she wasn't happy with what had happened and she requested that my application should be dealt with as priority.

After not hearing anything for another 4 weeks, I rang them again for them to then inform me that my mum had downloaded the wrong form and that she had downloaded the one from the previous year (they hadn't updated the website and changed the year of the form to download) They told me that they would send my mum her p60 back again, with the correct forms, that she would then have to fill out AGAIN and resend them off. This was in August that she sent them back off... and she still hasn't received her p60 back. So after 7-8 months of my first application, although I have received the basic loan, I haven't yet receive the amount I am entitled to, which according to the loan calculator on their website, i should receive approx. £1000 more than i am presently receiving. Although the basic loan is a tremendous help, it only just covers my rent so I am lucky that I have a job, otherwise, I wouldn't have any money for maintenance and living. They told me that when they have assessed my evidence they will credit my bank the remaining money they owe me, until then, i have to wait!”

The Union of UEA Students has sent a letter outlining UEA students’ complaints to the Chief Executive of the Student Loans Company, copying in the Vice Chancellor of UEA, Edward Acton and the MP for Norwich South, Charles Clarke. [See below] Last week the Government announced an investigation into how the student financial support system worked at the start of this academic year.

Natasha Barnes, the Communication Officer for the Union of UEA Students said: “We’ve had a large number of students coming to us in the past few weeks making complaints about how their financial support has been dealt with.

At the start of what, for the majority of students, is an already stressful time, it is unacceptable for the Student Loans Company to deal with students in this way.

We’re happy that an investigation has been announced and hope that future students will not be affected in the same way.”



19/10/09

Re: UEA Students and the Student Loans Company

Cc: Professor Edward Acton, Vice Chancellor, UEA
Charles Clarke, MP for Norwich South

Dear Ralph Seymour – Jackson,

I am writing on behalf of UEA students who are deeply concerned by the inability of the Student Loans Company to efficiently process their applications for grants and/or loans.

In the comments that we have received from our membership, four broad concerns emerge:
• Applications for finance have been delayed because documents have been lost.
• The telephone and email system to deal with applicants has been overwhelmed.
• Inaccurate documents have been produced or mistakes have been made.
• Applications have been held up for an unreasonable amount of time.

I have attached excerpts from students that reflect these concerns. Officers from the Union of UEA Students also surveyed nearly four hundred students during the week beginning 28th September and only 42% of students agreed with the statement “accessing financial support like grants, loans, bursaries and scholarships has been easy.”

For a significant number of students, this has meant financial hardship at the start of the academic year. One student wrote:

“I have recently started at the UEA as a first year undergraduate, and, like many of my peers, I am yet to receive any money whatsoever to support my studies or even to aid my travel into the University. To add to this, I am from a very low income background, as well as suffer from poor health and severe depression. With the added stress of the appalling work by Student Finance England, it has made me, and others in my position, suffer greatly - as if we need any help feeling down and ill.”

I am delighted that the Government has announced an investigation into the problems that occurred this year and I hope you will do all you can to ensure that similar problems do not occur next year.

Yours in unity,

Natasha Barnes
Communications Officer 2009-10
Union of UEA Students


Appendix – Selected UEA Students concerns with the Student Finance England

A) Applications for finance have been delayed because documents have been lost.

“In two separate incidents they've lost my passport details and my sponsor one evidence (even though they wrote to my sponsor to thank her for sending it). Sent Sponsor 1 evidence in again in June / July. They've only just noted that they've received it, in the last week (I had to chase to find out).”

“I also applied for a grant as my combined parents’ yearly earnings barely reaches £15k. I sent off evidence for their income back in May. My mother’s was processed fine, but they lost my father’s evidence and they failed to let me know.”

“I started applying back in May. After about a month of not hearing anything we phoned up to ask what was going on, and was told that none of my documents had been scanned into the system. They had lost them. Amongst those documents was my full handwritten birth certificate. We then sent off a second set of documents, and once again didn't hear anything for a while. I then received a letter telling me that if I didn't provide my passport details I would not be allowed any student finance funding. A little panicky, we phoned up again, explaining that I do not HAVE a passport, and another mini birth certificate had been sent in with the second set of all the other required information. We were then told that they had received all items they needed, APART from my birth certificate, despite it being in with all the other documents.

When the birth certificate was returned, it was accompanied with a second document, which we had never been told we had to fill out. It was a document I needed to take to someone to confirm they'd known me for at least 2 years etc, to give me a reference if needed. We got this done and sent it back. It came back AGAIN only a week before uni began, with another copy of the document, but no details telling me how the previous document was incorrect. We guessed, and I asked someone else to fill out the form.”

B) Inaccurate documents have been produced or mistakes have been made.

“I have still to receive anything yet from Student Finance England. They told me I was going to get a basic loan in my first week and then the rest of my entitlement later on, but as of yet I have heard nothing. I rang them last week and they told me I should be receiving a declaration letter in a few days but I haven’t had anything yet. I have been given contrasting information about when I will get anything and what i need to do. They have lost form, and made mistakes on my application causing it to take even longer.”

“I was never sent the confirmation of my loan for this year and have only just received it. Weirdly enough, I received the original (which they said was sent in May) and the replacement yesterday, sent to my Norwich address, which I had only supplied them with about a week ago.”

“I have had terrible problems with student finance, my loan still hasn't even been approved because they keep telling me I’ve sent them the wrong evidence, highly frustrating!!”

“I'm still waiting for my student loan! I'm into my third week now. I applied early, got nothing for a long time, then got a letter saying I had applied for nothing. I had to fill in a few forms to change this and now I am apparently waiting for them to confirm my NI number and confirm I am actually at University.”

“I am emailing you regarding to the financial issues. I have received my money but my tuition fee might be paid to University of Warwick even though I informed Student Finance England at least three times that I am at UEA. It is really worrying me but I hope they will finally sort it out.”

"I finally got my loan a couple of days ago. I applied online and they were meant to mail me a form to sign. They sent it to my old house so I called and asked for another one. That never turned up.”

C) The telephone system to deal with applicants has been overwhelmed.

“Must have made between 20 and 30 calls in total. Over the last 8 weeks I've probably spent an average of 20 minutes per call (5 -8 calls) on the phone waiting to be connected and that's when I can actually get in the queue. (If there are too many people waiting they don't even give you the option).”

“I've called them every week for 6 weeks and after holding for an average of 40 mins per call, all i get told is we’re working on your claim, contact us again in 7-10 days!!!!!"”

“I ring and they just put the phone down on me. I think it's disgusting really.”

“They don't communicate with you and are very difficult to get hold of. The phone lines are always busy and the website is often down. It is very hard to find out what stage your application is at."

D) Applications have been held up for an unreasonable amount of time.

“I continuously rung through June, July and August for them to repeatedly tell me to not worry and they were still processing applicants from May. It was only till early September that one of the operators told me i should re-send it in. Now i am having to wait till mid October to receive my grant, and even then it is not guaranteed. Money is a real struggle at the moment and has made the University experience far less enjoyable than what i should of been.”

“My dad spoke to student finance yesterday [5/10/09] and they told him that at the moment they are dealing with paperwork from the 27th July. I applied for finance at the beginning of May but I had to send updates in August. I haven’t heard anything from them, letters or emails, or had any money paid into my account, so I’m guessing it will be Christmas before any loan comes in if they are dealing with applications from nearly three months ago at the moment, so I don’t really know what to do about my rent.”

“I still haven’t received my finance from student finance, they are saying it’s going to take another 3 weeks even though i applied for my loan 4 months ago!!!”

“I haven't received my loan yet and I applied in April. Haven't heard anything from them yet.”

“Hi, I have had loads of trouble with student finance. I first applied in February for my student loan and tuition fee loan. When I hadn't heard anything from student finance for about 4 months (by June) I rang them. They then informed me that they hadn’t received my mother’s financial evidence, that was in the same envelope as her p60, which, she had got sent back to her. So it became obvious that they had been careless with my mother’s information. As they claimed to not receive the evidence, they put me down as receiving the basic loan not based on household income, which I didnt want as I am entitled to more.”

“Just wanted to inform you that I have still not heard back from Student Finance England. My last correspondence which I received from them was a letter dated the 15th July. Saying they have received my application and my information was being processed!!”

“My mum tried to download another evidence form from 'my correspondents' on my account page, but it wasn't working as it was under maintenance. So she went onto the main website and downloaded the form from there. She then sent it off again with a letter saying that she wasn't happy with what had happened and she requested that my application should be dealt with as priority.

After not hearing anything for another 4 weeks, I rang them again for them to then inform me that my mum had downloaded the wrong form and that she had downloaded the one from the previous year (they hadn't updated the website and changed the year of the form to download) They told me that they would send my mum her p60 back again, with the correct forms, that she would then have to fill out AGAIN and resend them off. This was in August that she sent them back off... and she still hasn't received her p60 back. So after 7-8 months of my first application, although I have received the basic loan, I haven't yet receive the amount I am entitled to, which according to the loan calculator on their website, i should receive approx. £1000 more than i am presently receiving. Although the basic loan is a tremendous help, it only just covers my rent so I am lucky that I have a job, otherwise, I wouldn't have any money for maintenance and living. They told me that when they have assessed my evidence they will credit my bank the remaining money they owe me, until then, i have to wait!”

The Union of UEA Students has sent a letter outlining UEA students’ complaints to the Chief Executive of the Student Loans Company, copying in the Vice Chancellor of UEA, Edward Acton and the MP for Norwich South, Charles Clarke. [See below] Last week the Government announced an investigation into how the student financial support system worked at the start of this academic year.

Natasha Barnes, the Communication Officer for the Union of UEA Students said: “We’ve had a large number of students coming to us in the past few weeks making complaints about how their financial support has been dealt with.

At the start of what, for the majority of students, is an already stressful time, it is unacceptable for the Student Loans Company to deal with students in this way.

We’re happy that an investigation has been announced and hope that future students will not be affected in the same way.”



19/10/09

Re: UEA Students and the Student Loans Company

Cc: Professor Edward Acton, Vice Chancellor, UEA
Charles Clarke, MP for Norwich South

Dear Ralph Seymour – Jackson,

I am writing on behalf of UEA students who are deeply concerned by the inability of the Student Loans Company to efficiently process their applications for grants and/or loans.

In the comments that we have received from our membership, four broad concerns emerge:
• Applications for finance have been delayed because documents have been lost.
• The telephone and email system to deal with applicants has been overwhelmed.
• Inaccurate documents have been produced or mistakes have been made.
• Applications have been held up for an unreasonable amount of time.

I have attached excerpts from students that reflect these concerns. Officers from the Union of UEA Students also surveyed nearly four hundred students during the week beginning 28th September and only 42% of students agreed with the statement “accessing financial support like grants, loans, bursaries and scholarships has been easy.”

For a significant number of students, this has meant financial hardship at the start of the academic year. One student wrote:

“I have recently started at the UEA as a first year undergraduate, and, like many of my peers, I am yet to receive any money whatsoever to support my studies or even to aid my travel into the University. To add to this, I am from a very low income background, as well as suffer from poor health and severe depression. With the added stress of the appalling work by Student Finance England, it has made me, and others in my position, suffer greatly - as if we need any help feeling down and ill.”

I am delighted that the Government has announced an investigation into the problems that occurred this year and I hope you will do all you can to ensure that similar problems do not occur next year.

Yours in unity,

Natasha Barnes
Communications Officer 2009-10
Union of UEA Students


Appendix – Selected UEA Students concerns with the Student Finance England

A) Applications for finance have been delayed because documents have been lost.

“In two separate incidents they've lost my passport details and my sponsor one evidence (even though they wrote to my sponsor to thank her for sending it). Sent Sponsor 1 evidence in again in June / July. They've only just noted that they've received it, in the last week (I had to chase to find out).”

“I also applied for a grant as my combined parents’ yearly earnings barely reaches £15k. I sent off evidence for their income back in May. My mother’s was processed fine, but they lost my father’s evidence and they failed to let me know.”

“I started applying back in May. After about a month of not hearing anything we phoned up to ask what was going on, and was told that none of my documents had been scanned into the system. They had lost them. Amongst those documents was my full handwritten birth certificate. We then sent off a second set of documents, and once again didn't hear anything for a while. I then received a letter telling me that if I didn't provide my passport details I would not be allowed any student finance funding. A little panicky, we phoned up again, explaining that I do not HAVE a passport, and another mini birth certificate had been sent in with the second set of all the other required information. We were then told that they had received all items they needed, APART from my birth certificate, despite it being in with all the other documents.

When the birth certificate was returned, it was accompanied with a second document, which we had never been told we had to fill out. It was a document I needed to take to someone to confirm they'd known me for at least 2 years etc, to give me a reference if needed. We got this done and sent it back. It came back AGAIN only a week before uni began, with another copy of the document, but no details telling me how the previous document was incorrect. We guessed, and I asked someone else to fill out the form.”

B) Inaccurate documents have been produced or mistakes have been made.

“I have still to receive anything yet from Student Finance England. They told me I was going to get a basic loan in my first week and then the rest of my entitlement later on, but as of yet I have heard nothing. I rang them last week and they told me I should be receiving a declaration letter in a few days but I haven’t had anything yet. I have been given contrasting information about when I will get anything and what i need to do. They have lost form, and made mistakes on my application causing it to take even longer.”

“I was never sent the confirmation of my loan for this year and have only just received it. Weirdly enough, I received the original (which they said was sent in May) and the replacement yesterday, sent to my Norwich address, which I had only supplied them with about a week ago.”

“I have had terrible problems with student finance, my loan still hasn't even been approved because they keep telling me I’ve sent them the wrong evidence, highly frustrating!!”

“I'm still waiting for my student loan! I'm into my third week now. I applied early, got nothing for a long time, then got a letter saying I had applied for nothing. I had to fill in a few forms to change this and now I am apparently waiting for them to confirm my NI number and confirm I am actually at University.”

“I am emailing you regarding to the financial issues. I have received my money but my tuition fee might be paid to University of Warwick even though I informed Student Finance England at least three times that I am at UEA. It is really worrying me but I hope they will finally sort it out.”

"I finally got my loan a couple of days ago. I applied online and they were meant to mail me a form to sign. They sent it to my old house so I called and asked for another one. That never turned up.”

C) The telephone system to deal with applicants has been overwhelmed.

“Must have made between 20 and 30 calls in total. Over the last 8 weeks I've probably spent an average of 20 minutes per call (5 -8 calls) on the phone waiting to be connected and that's when I can actually get in the queue. (If there are too many people waiting they don't even give you the option).”

“I've called them every week for 6 weeks and after holding for an average of 40 mins per call, all i get told is we’re working on your claim, contact us again in 7-10 days!!!!!"”

“I ring and they just put the phone down on me. I think it's disgusting really.”

“They don't communicate with you and are very difficult to get hold of. The phone lines are always busy and the website is often down. It is very hard to find out what stage your application is at."

D) Applications have been held up for an unreasonable amount of time.

“I continuously rung through June, July and August for them to repeatedly tell me to not worry and they were still processing applicants from May. It was only till early September that one of the operators told me i should re-send it in. Now i am having to wait till mid October to receive my grant, and even then it is not guaranteed. Money is a real struggle at the moment and has made the University experience far less enjoyable than what i should of been.”

“My dad spoke to student finance yesterday [5/10/09] and they told him that at the moment they are dealing with paperwork from the 27th July. I applied for finance at the beginning of May but I had to send updates in August. I haven’t heard anything from them, letters or emails, or had any money paid into my account, so I’m guessing it will be Christmas before any loan comes in if they are dealing with applications from nearly three months ago at the moment, so I don’t really know what to do about my rent.”

“I still haven’t received my finance from student finance, they are saying it’s going to take another 3 weeks even though i applied for my loan 4 months ago!!!”

“I haven't received my loan yet and I applied in April. Haven't heard anything from them yet.”

“Hi, I have had loads of trouble with student finance. I first applied in February for my student loan and tuition fee loan. When I hadn't heard anything from student finance for about 4 months (by June) I rang them. They then informed me that they hadn’t received my mother’s financial evidence, that was in the same envelope as her p60, which, she had got sent back to her. So it became obvious that they had been careless with my mother’s information. As they claimed to not receive the evidence, they put me down as receiving the basic loan not based on household income, which I didnt want as I am entitled to more.”

“Just wanted to inform you that I have still not heard back from Student Finance England. My last correspondence which I received from them was a letter dated the 15th July. Saying they have received my application and my information was being processed!!”

“My mum tried to download another evidence form from 'my correspondents' on my account page, but it wasn't working as it was under maintenance. So she went onto the main website and downloaded the form from there. She then sent it off again with a letter saying that she wasn't happy with what had happened and she requested that my application should be dealt with as priority.

After not hearing anything for another 4 weeks, I rang them again for them to then inform me that my mum had downloaded the wrong form and that she had downloaded the one from the previous year (they hadn't updated the website and changed the year of the form to download) They told me that they would send my mum her p60 back again, with the correct forms, that she would then have to fill out AGAIN and resend them off. This was in August that she sent them back off... and she still hasn't received her p60 back. So after 7-8 months of my first application, although I have received the basic loan, I haven't yet receive the amount I am entitled to, which according to the loan calculator on their website, i should receive approx. £1000 more than i am presently receiving. Although the basic loan is a tremendous help, it only just covers my rent so I am lucky that I have a job, otherwise, I wouldn't have any money for maintenance and living. They told me that when they have assessed my evidence they will credit my bank the remaining money they owe me, until then, i have to wait!”