Extra staff tackle university loans backlog
THE company responsible for leaving thousands of university undergraduates without the money to start their courses this year said it had taken on an additional 100 staff at its Darlington office to help speed up claims.
Last week a damning report on payment delays at the Student Loans Company resulted in the resignation of two senior members of the management team who presided over a catalogue of IT and communication failures.
The SLC’s 600-strong staff at Lingfield Point are in the first 12 months of a three-year contract to provide the government’s Student Finance England service, dealing with all applications for first year grants and some returning students.
In total, the SLC, which has four offices in the UK, will process well over £1bn worth of grants and loans for 2009/10, but at one point it admitted the backlog of delays meant more than 100,000 students started their first term without cash for food or rent.
Students, parents and universities complained of a chaotic system in which paperwork was lost and phone calls went unanswered.
A Teesside mother of one 20-year-old starting a course at Newcastle University, who did not wish to be named, said they were still waiting for full payment more than 16 months after submitting their original application.
“I have had numerous phone calls that they deny having any record of. So far, all we’ve received is the basic minimum. She’s got a part-time job to pay the rent, but now she’s having to go into overdraft. The next step is to apply for emergency funds from the university.”
