All a loan (Student Loans Co.)

Member Name: scotia1949

Product:	Student Loans Co.
Date:	23/05/01 (69 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: not many

Disadvantages: bureaucratic, unfair rules

First let me say that I am not a student but the father of a second year student with two more prospective students coming up behind him, so I have a vested interest in this subject.

When the idea of loans replacing grants came along I must admit, being a taxpayer, I felt that the concept was fair if properly applied, but I don't feel it has been.

My biggest gripe is with the means testing and its rules. First of all, it strikes me as dumb and insulting to say the least that my son should be deemed to be my dependent until he is 25. I thought University was about making you a "whole person" in your own right. What has my income got to do with the amount of loan he should get?

The whole idea of means testing always forgets to take account of one tiny little factor. No matter how much they earn, most folk take on commitments up to or in excess of their income. My son's assessment decreed that I could afford to fund him to the tune of nearly £200 per month, bollocks. I maybe have a few quid left over now and again but everything else is accounted for. Most home-owners will tell you the same, at least 50% and often considerably more, of your take home pay is tied up in money you have to spend every month, mortgage, rates, water, gas, electricity, food etc.

The Student loans Company seem reasonably competent to me, except that everything has to be done in triplicate. Their capacity for sticking to the rules knows no bounds. I tried ringing to give them a second relative's contact address but they refused to take it from me because I was honest enough to say that I was phoning on behalf of my son. If I had told him I WAS my son he would have taken it quite happily.

I think my biggest moan about the whole system though is the mindset of those involved in this tortuous process, especially my LEA. My son had problems with his course and when I was taking the matter up with the LEA they kept wittering on about
how they do not normally FUND this and they wouldn't be able to FUND that. "Fund" what precisely? They are not giving money away any more. They are deciding how much they will allow him to borrow, its no skin off their nose.

In conclusion, I think the way in which the whole students loan system is managed is bureaucratic, does not make enough allowance for the disorganised ways of a great many students and is going to result in total chaos in the years to come as they try to trace you guys all over the world and get the money back off you. Good luck to you all!!!

Summary: