Students handed loans in error given reprieve, minister announces
Minister for Children and Families Josh MacAlister has told MPs that the Department for Education (DfE) is concerned about the students impacted by weekend courses being incorrectly classified and awarded maintenance loans and targeted grants.“As ministers, we have asked the Student Loans Company to collect any overpayments through normal student finance repayments, and to pause recoveries of overpaid grants until at least September, while we consider next steps,” he told the House of Commons on Monday.Amira Campbell, president of the National Union of Students (NUS), said the announcement will be a “huge relief” for impacted students.The Student Loans Company (SLC) wrote to students earlier this month to tell them their university or college provided incorrect information and did not tell SLC they only attended on the weekend.The affected students across 14 institutions had been told if they continued to study and were reassessed as ineligible for maintenance loans, they would have to pay back any money they were paid beyond the entitlement they should have had.Read more: Nine universities initiate legal action over student loan error disputeRead more: More than 20,000 students face repaying loans of up to £30k after funding 'error'
Weekend-only courses are classed as distance learning, which means students can only apply for a maintenance loan if they cannot attend their course in person due to a disability.Being taken through the usual student finance repayment process means the incorrect loans will not be repaid until a student goes over the income threshold for repaying loans.Recovery of targeted grants will be paused while officials consider how this should be handled going forward.Ms Campbell said: “For the 22,000 students who were being asked to pay back as much as £55,000 on an incredibly sped up timeline, this will be a huge relief. They have fought so hard against the withdrawal of their maintenance loans and childcare grants, and not having to start paying them back as soon as next month will have taken some pressure off of both their mental health and bank accounts.“The Government is still refusing to provide the future funding that all students are eligible for, meaning that many of these students have been considering dropping out mid-way through the degrees they have worked so hard for.“This is a good first step, but we need the Government to confirm that they will continue to fund current weekend students’ studies until this cohort finishes their courses.”The loans and targeted grants were issued incorrectly due to course providers – several of which were franchised – incorrectly registering them as “in attendance” courses, it is understood. The Education Secretary announced last year that franchised providers, which are institutions that operate in partnership with registered universities to deliver courses on their behalf, will have to meet watchdog standards or face being cut off from funding from 2028/29.The announcement was part of the Government’s attempts to crack down on “rogue operator” franchisers.Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said: “This is not students’ fault. Too many organisations have let their students down, through either incompetence or abuse of the system. Many of these organisations lack the necessary governance and oversight to properly implement clear guidance. Others have used this loophole as another opportunity to abuse public money. Either way, this is not the standard I expect from our world-class university sector. “Universities must take immediate action to support students who will face financial difficulties as a result.” A statement issued through Universities UK on behalf of the affected institutions earlier this month said they are concerned “thousands of maintenance loan payments” have been “abruptly blocked”.Nine universities indicated last week they intended to take legal action against the DfE and SLC to challenge the decision to withdraw weekend students’ maintenance loans.
Comments (0)