It's unfortunately not unusual for people's loan to be delayed. If this is you, you're not on your own - guidance and support is available!
As Student Finance England (or "SFE") is busy processing payments across the country, it's unfortunately not unusual for many people's loan to be delayed. If this is you, you're not on your own - guidance and support is available!
This article details the most frequent queries we get from students, which should help point you in the right direction for a solution, but if you are completely stuck, don't know where to start or have a particularly complex scenario that you're stuck in, book an appointment with one of our Advisers or email us at studentadvice@staffs.ac.uk
Please remember that advice appointments are only available 5 working days in advance, so if you can't see anything available, check back tomorrow!
"I have rent or other costs due immediately and my loan was the only way I was going to cover these costs"
The first thing to do is make sure you've openly communicated with anyone that you need to. Whether it's the University, a landlord or a bank, people and organisations are usually accommodating if you keep them informed.
The University obviously anticipates and understands that sometimes students' loans are delayed through no fault of their own, and so they proactively take steps to support those who need some short-term help.Take a look at the University's online financial support tool, Blackbullion, to see different hardship funds that you can apply for.If you find yourself in immediate Food Crisis, you can also apply for Food Hub support by booking an appointment with one of our Advisers
Please bear in mind that the support available for Post Grad, International and Partner Students may differ.
"The University needs SFE to confirm something"
If you've spoken to SFE and they are awaiting action from the University, we suggest that you put in a Solve Ticket asking the University to send those confirmations. The process of the university confirming is automated but, like any system or process, things sometimes go wrong.
Often, the University doesn't have a reference number from SFE which it needs in order to send confirmations. You could ring SFE (or Live-Chat SFE on your SFE online account), and ask them for your Student Support Number (which is a mix of letters and numerals). You can add this to your Solve ticket too, which means you might provide what the university need to confirm your studies!
"SFE need the University to confirm something"
Just like exploring the above issues, the best approach is likely to submit both a Solve Ticket to the University and to contact SFE to understand exactly what they need.
If you've already spoken to SFE and you know exactly what the University need to provide, then you can go straight to submitting the Solve Ticket and be very clear about what SFE have told you; copying-and-pasting anything they might have put in an email or shared over Live-Chat means will be extra clear and avoid confusion by getting technical language mixed-up.
"I arrived at university late, and now my loan is late too"
If you are a student who has joined us at Staffs very late through Clearing, following a transfer from another course or institution, or if you've had any kind of enrolment issue or delay, please bear in mind that this could cause a knock-on to your information being shared and processed by the University or SFE.
You should be able to see a "Loan Tracker" through the university's Beacon platform, which is the best way to quickly check where your loan is up to.
"I don't know why my loan hasn't arrived"
Please don't worry if you feel lost about what's going on! As a new student it's very easy to get lost in SFE, University or enrolment processes - especially if you have the added stress of money worries in the mix, too.
The key thing to remember is to ask for help as soon as possible, and don't wait for a problem to sort itself out; it might do, but it might also get worse without action being taken.
If you ever need help: book an appointment with one of our Advisers or email us at studentadvice@staffs.ac.uk
"I'm from Scotland, Northern Ireland or Wales and I haven't received my loan"
As your funding is provided by a different body (not SFE), your situation is likely different. A Solve Ticket and contacting your appropriate funding body are a sensible start (as above), but as a more unique case it's probably worth booking an appointment with one of our team.