Press Release: Over 100,000 students waiting for grant and loan assessments
New figures from the Student Loans Company published today show that 109,000 students have still not had their applications for financial support processed, after the Government’s student support system collapsed this year. Weeks after term began there are still:
- 39,000 students who have only had an interim assessment;
- 31,000 students who have not had their application fully processed;
- 39,000 students who have been asked to provide further information, though often this information will already have been provided by the student
Shadow Universities and Skills Secretary, David Willetts said:
“These figures illustrate how the system has collapsed this year. Ministers have created an over-complicated system and have failed to tackle the problem. Now students and their families are the victims. Even though we are well into the academic year, more than one in ten students is still waiting for a proper assessment.
“The crisis is having a particularly severe impact on new students and students from poorer households, and many disabled students are suffering particularly hard as their applications seem to have been placed near the bottom of the pile.
“There is a real risk of the crisis becoming a tragedy, for example if the problems lead to higher drop-out rates or fewer applications next year - or if they are not resolved before the next group of students start in January. Ministers must urgently provide more details about the independent review they were forced to concede in the recent debate in the House of Commons.”
Notes to Editors
- The Student Loans Company issued new data on 27th October 2009, which is available at: http://www.slc.co.uk/statistics/facts%20and%20%20figures/index.html.
- David Willetts MP called a parliamentary debate on the student loan crisis on 14 October 2009. The full Hansard transcript is at: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmhansrd/cm091014/debtext/91014-0008.htm#09101435002341.
- It is incorrect to think that the 844,000 approved applications resolve the issue even for these students. Many of them will not have received their money yet as payments are only released after a series of further checks.