advice please on debt

Yup I believe this is true.

They cannot seek your ongoing repayments if your income is below the threshold figure. What they can seek is repayment of the "arrears". How much the repayments would be would depend on your ability to pay - through your advice centre, draw up a budget and work out what real surplus income you have (if any). Offer to pay them only what you know you can afford. Keep them up to date with what is happening and you will probably find them more cooperative than you fear.

Regretably this seems an inevitablity. And Student Loans are explicitly excluded if you make yourself bankrupt so you cannot escape the liability. :o(

They would have contacted you - probably through the referees you gave on yuor application form if you had moved. My own, similar experience is that they are slow to act and understanding if you explain your situation honestly.

I may have been lucky, but I'm not usually!

Keep happy.

jay

Check with The Registry Trust, link here -

I don't know anything about Student Loans, but in this situation it might be worth attempting to circumvent the standard 3 month clause by going to a higher authority. Try getting you local MP to intervene

hth

Daytona

Just over £5,000.

So to repay that over say 20 years is going to cost around 25 a month isnt it? Is that really a lot? How much do you spend on ciggies, drinks, meals out, whatever, a month? If you had a reasonable job, once your depression is over or controlled, its tiny in the great scheme of things. If you got a part time job now, say working in a pub or a supermarket for just a few hours a week, you'd easily earn 5 to 10x that.

Can I respectfully suggest that your depression has made this loan, and the effects of paying it off, seem much worse than it really is? (Unless my maths is really off somewhere) And perhaps you'd be better off froma morale POV if you got a part time job, if you arent up to a full time one at the mo? Something with 'no responsibility at all' ala the film American Beauty maybe? That would let you easily make the loan repayments, and take that worry off your mind. More useful than sitting at home worrying about it even if you worry about it while you work :-)

"Tumbleweed" wrote

What is the interest rate applicable to Student Loans? 25pm over 20 yrs for 5K sounds like about 2% interest. [I want me a loan at just 2% interest, gimme gimme!!]

Seriously, with a "normal" interest rate wouldn't it cost more like

30-40+pm?? But then I suppose Student Loans may be at a discounted rate...

Interest is charged at the rate of RPI inflation. (Current rate is 3.1 APR!)

Nick

"Nick Read" wrote

Excellent! Can a "mature student" get a Student Loan? If so, do you really need to go to any lectures etc? :-) [Sounds like a bit of a money spinner - once all the 0% credit cards are full of course - just put the money in a savings a/c earning a higher rate than RPI (my offset mortgage should do!)]

Is there a maximum you can borrow?

3k or 4k depending on parents income IIRC when I looked a few weeks ago. I thought the interest rate was about 2% though which was wrong it seems. I dont think it substantially alters my case, which is that this is not really a big deal, it could be paid off by working for about 5 hours a month.

That is per year I should have said.

"Tumbleweed" wrote

Do they still consider parents income for a Mature Student? What if you no longer know where one of your parents lives, and therefore don't know their income?

Probably not. Checkout your local government website. I dont even know if a mature student can get a loan.

That might be tough luck. This is government we are talking about, whereas I believe you are thinking there is some logic being applied?

Have a look at their online loan calculator;

After a certain age the calculator doesn't ask for any parents details.

Eg, if I put my age in corectly as 29, no mention is made of my parents, but if I knock ten years off and pretend to be 19, it opens up a couple of pages to fill in my parents income, and details of brothers/sisters etc, so I guess the cut-off for being classed as a mature student must somewhere in the mid 20's.

Nick

I don't know about university, but a couple of years ago I helped someone apply for funding to go to college. At that point your parents income was only considered if you were under 25. There was an exception to this, in that if you could prove you had been self sufficient for two years, by staying away from home and funding yourself, then you could ask to be considered on your own merits.

James