Right, bit of backstory:
This is the first year that I've had to apply for the maintenance grant, as my mum was recently made redundant, so she wouldn't be able to help me through Uni if I couldn't afford it (bit of a ridiculous thought process there to start with, just because your parents earn more doesn't mean they'll help you out
). So I apply for student finance as normal, get it all sorted out with the maintenance grant, and then wait for the start of term. Before the start of term, the readout on the website said that I would be receiving the full amount of loan and grant, on the start of term.
Fast forward to the start of term, and... Nothing. No money. So, I called them up to ask what the hell is going on. Apparently, there was an income variance on my mum's HMRC details which meant that she had to send in some more details to try and fix it. They'd known about this for a couple of weeks, and had not told me anything. I ask why, they said that they didn't know, apologised, and sent me out a declaration for the basic loan so I would have some money to start off with. This took 2 weeks to arrive, and a further 3 weeks before my loan actually came through, meaning I was having to survive off my girlfriend at the time's money, and pay her back when I could.
During this I was in constant contact with SFE trying to sort this out. Most of the people I spoke to were rather unhelpful, and kept saying different things that me and my mum had to send in to them, HMRC, hell, to the queen of Mars for all I knew, as it didn't sort anything.
Finally, last week, we get a definitive answer after making the umpteenth complaint. My mum had to send a P60 in to student finance, then it would be sorted within a week. This was exactly a week ago. I called them up today to ask if they had any news, only to be called a liar (surreptitiously) and a waste of their time (not so surreptitiously). I told them that I had next to no food left, with no money left, as I had had to pay rent, pay for food, gas and electric for the last month on a pittance. They basically said it wasn't their problem (really? REALLY? Well whose problem is it then?!?!) and that although they were sorting it out, they were still scanning financial documents from the 26th November (;rolleyes
and that they couldn't give me a timeframe, and then proceeded to hang up on me.
So, I'm sitting here, hungry, with no money, wondering how the hell I'm going to cope this week. Sorry for the ranty post, it's just that this isn't the first time I've had major issues with student finance, nor will, I don't doubt, this be the last.
/rant.
This is the first year that I've had to apply for the maintenance grant, as my mum was recently made redundant, so she wouldn't be able to help me through Uni if I couldn't afford it (bit of a ridiculous thought process there to start with, just because your parents earn more doesn't mean they'll help you out
). So I apply for student finance as normal, get it all sorted out with the maintenance grant, and then wait for the start of term. Before the start of term, the readout on the website said that I would be receiving the full amount of loan and grant, on the start of term.Fast forward to the start of term, and... Nothing. No money. So, I called them up to ask what the hell is going on. Apparently, there was an income variance on my mum's HMRC details which meant that she had to send in some more details to try and fix it. They'd known about this for a couple of weeks, and had not told me anything. I ask why, they said that they didn't know, apologised, and sent me out a declaration for the basic loan so I would have some money to start off with. This took 2 weeks to arrive, and a further 3 weeks before my loan actually came through, meaning I was having to survive off my girlfriend at the time's money, and pay her back when I could.
During this I was in constant contact with SFE trying to sort this out. Most of the people I spoke to were rather unhelpful, and kept saying different things that me and my mum had to send in to them, HMRC, hell, to the queen of Mars for all I knew, as it didn't sort anything.
Finally, last week, we get a definitive answer after making the umpteenth complaint. My mum had to send a P60 in to student finance, then it would be sorted within a week. This was exactly a week ago. I called them up today to ask if they had any news, only to be called a liar (surreptitiously) and a waste of their time (not so surreptitiously). I told them that I had next to no food left, with no money left, as I had had to pay rent, pay for food, gas and electric for the last month on a pittance. They basically said it wasn't their problem (really? REALLY? Well whose problem is it then?!?!) and that although they were sorting it out, they were still scanning financial documents from the 26th November (;rolleyes
and that they couldn't give me a timeframe, and then proceeded to hang up on me.So, I'm sitting here, hungry, with no money, wondering how the hell I'm going to cope this week. Sorry for the ranty post, it's just that this isn't the first time I've had major issues with student finance, nor will, I don't doubt, this be the last.
/rant.
