By Pravindharan Balakrishnan
It is sad to note that more than 28,500 students across England have still not received their student loan from Student Finance England. In September last year, more than 100,000 students were left short of funds due to a delay in processing applications. Although many student loans have since been cleared, some 12,500 are yet to receive their Disabled Students’ Allowance and around 16,000 have only had an interim assessment regarding their case, meaning they are left without a full loan to pay for rising tuition costs. Approximately four months ago, Student Finance promised that all those who had applied for their loans by mid-August would at least get ‘basic funding’, which included tuition fees and a basic maintenance allowance, within a stipulated time of seven days of starting their course. However, upon failure of receiving their loans, Money Mail has told the students that they have failed to receive funding due to problems with their declaration forms. Nonetheless, this is not the first debacle regarding Money Mail. Three years ago, graduates complained that they continued to pay hundreds of pounds to Money Mail despite having cleared their debts. According to The Student Loans Company, the most recent figures highlight that just 2,000 of the students who qualified for funding have not been paid, while 1,000 more were caught up in the banking system and another 2,000 were having their National Insurance number verified. The result of this mess is having a detrimental effect on the parents of these students. Universities are hounding these students who have been left without the means to pay for their tuition fees and parents are being forced to fork out thousands of pounds for their children’s future. The question is, how long are parents able to support their children trapped in this financial disaster?
Saddening indeed! Another well written article!
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