Students Bearing The Brunt Of Loan Mistake

The Royal College of Nursing have been trying to support many nursing students through recent Student Finance errors. Hundreds of students around the country, especially nursing students, have been affected by a serious error by the Student Loans Company, who overpaid students in September, and are subsequently cancelling the scheduled April payments for some students, or greatly reducing them to make up for the money they have already been paid earlier in the year.

The Royal College of Nursing have been asking the Student Loans Company to write off the overpaid money to avoid putting student through unnecessary financial hardship. The overpayments of between £600 and £5,000 were mostly paid in September 2017. For students who are already managing on limited budgets, having their expected payments withdrawn to make up for an error that wasn’t made on their end is extremely worrying! This is leading to concerns that those who are not successful in getting financial hardship support from their universities may end up dropping out as they struggle to make ends meet.

The Student Loan Company have said they are aware of the issues students are facing as a result of these mistakes and have said they are making students aware of the options available to them. Some students have however said they are disappointed with how the situation is being handled. Not all students have had the information at the same time, or all of the information they need.

At this point in the academic year this kind of added pressure or worrying about financial hardship is making it a very difficult spring for hundreds of UK students.

BBC report can be seen here:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-43431413