SLC wasteful but essential (Student Loans Co.)

Member Name: MikeModano09

Product:	Student Loans Co.
Date:	21/09/09 (25 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: You can get free money, quick if done early enough

Disadvantages: If they make an error you can get into a lot of financial trouble

Being a student I feel it is my duty to provide a review of the Student Loans Company.

The Student Loans Company is a company set up by the government to provide financial support to students applying for university, these are usually in the form of A) A tuition fee loan, B) A maintainance loan C) Maintainance grants / Any other Bursaries.

This is the second year that I have had to use them and I must say that overall I have found them relatively easy and straightforward to deal with. Applicants simply have to fill in a load of forms giving their name and address e.t.c. before deciding whether or not to apply for means tested assistance ( this is the grants that students get if they come from a poorer background i.e household income is less than around 30k) the grants are non repayable sums of money given to you. If you wish to have this you then get sent a number of forms to prove your families income levels are what you say they are so that the SLC can process it and determine whether or not to approve your request for support.

There didn't seem to be any problems with either of the applications that I sent off but I know that my friends have not quite been so lucky with many being asked to resubmit information for a third time despite their application having already been approved. As long as you are careful in reading the paperwork and only filling in what is needed then you should be ok.

In terms of repayment rates, you need to be earning over £15k per year and even then the repayments are small, the overall interest rate you pay makes them the cheapest loans around (so even if you are lucky enough to not require them, it is worth considering having them for when you finish uni and want to buy something like a car) with a typical interest rate of around 2% (although currently around 0%). If you don't pay your loans back within 25 years then they are abolished and if you feel like your university tuition has not been worth it then you can even claim the tuition money back.


One thing that is worth noting is that the SLC seem to be very wasteful when it comes to paper use, they have sent me the same piece of paper (my overall payment summary) 6 times when 1 would have sufficed, if they have done this for every student then they must have wasted a lot of money!

Overall they are a service that every student will need and as long as you do them early enough and correctly you shouldn't find yourself in any problems.

Summary: Be careful when you fill in your forms.