Student Loans aagghhhh! (Student Loans Co.)

Member Name: gillianxxswan

Product:	Student Loans Co.
Date:	29/03/01 (55 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: getting money! ha!

Disadvantages: means-testing, delays!

Gone are the days when students received grants which could be topped up using a loan! No, nowadays the main source of a studnet income is a student loan. I do understand this though as generally students have high earning potentials and can afford to pay back the money eventually therefore why should we be given! However there are several shortfallings of the system such as complicated forms,means testing and delays in processing.
The loans are given on a means tested basis this means that your parents wage is taken into acount when the money is being doled out. The minimum loan (ie even if your old dears are millionaires you can get it)is £1750 ranging to the maximum of £3750 ( or something like that!) This might sound like a lot of money to anybody but a student, but it doesnt go far considering hall rent is generally around £2000, there are also travel/living expenses books etc to be taken into account. Anyway back to the annoyance of means testing, even though students are generally over 18, classeed as adults and most importantly deemed independant from their parents, the goverment still asseses the loans on a parents wage. When applying for a loan the loans company will send you a statment deeming the amount of loan they think fit and also the parental contribution depending on my parents wage!The parental contribution can be zero ( ie the student gets a full loan of £3750) if the parents' wage is below a certain threshhold) or on the otherhand the parental contribution can be assesed at the full whack ( ie the student recieves the minimum loan £1750 which is topped up to £3750 with parental cntribution.)I don't think it fair that after 18 years of my parents supporting me that when I come of age thay are still deemed responsible for me financially!Surely as we all are studets we have have a similair earning capacity and therefore one student should get neither more or less money depending on our parents, we are after all going to have to pay i
t all back at the end of the day. Can you see my point?
Another annoyance about the loan system is the long forms you have to fill out stating not only personal details but your parents earnings and a official statement of the earnings! Honestly you'd think you were applying to NASA to go to the moon or something, the length of it. Finally cheques and application tend to (always) be delayed so when you expect it to come in it arrives weeks sometimes months later meanwhile you have to get by on nothing! Sometimes when you phone up the tell yo it hasn't yet been processed due to missing signitures allegedly, well why didn't they send it back then!!
Anyway i've outlined so many bad points I should really give some good points. These are: the fact that we're given (lent) money at all and we only have to pay it back in small monthly instalments,after we reach certain earning threshhold. Secondly how nice the staff when you phone and get past the automated system. Anyway to conclude i would rate student loans very useful ( through necessity!) but the system by which they are assesd and given unsatisfactory!

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