SLC Stakeholder Meeting: July 2015

SLC Stakeholder Operations Group (July 2015)

SLC Operational update

The AY 2015/16 Student Finance England (SFE) and Student Finance Wales (SFW) services for full-time students continue to operate within call handling and processing targets.

As of 26 July 2015 SLC have received 74% of forecasted AY 2015/16 SFE applications and around 77% of forecasted AY 15/16 SFW applications.

Maintenance Loan overpayments recovery

BIS provide an overview of the new loan overpayment recovery process.  Under instruction from BIS SLC under took a pilot process where loan overpayments were recovered in course (and not added to the loan debt). Following the pilot SLC have been asked to implement this process. Members were keen to ensure that this process was transparent and students were aware of the impacts of withdrawing

Postgraduate Loans

SLC advised that the BIS consultation regarding Postgraduate Loans is ongoing and SLC is impact assessing the work necessary to undertake this function based on a number of assumptions.

Suspended Students

The group was concerned that students who suspended their studies in 2014/15 were unable to apply for support for 2015/16. SLC confirmed that a student who suspended in 2014/15 can apply for finance for 2015/16 as normal. In cases where the students resumption date is after the start of the AY 2015/16  a zero assessment will be carried out until SLC receives a resumption notification from the students HEP.

For AY 2015/16 only 80 students have resumption dates after the start of the AY 2015/16. The group was reassured that the number of affected students was low, as a student’s decision to resume maybe in part related to how much financial support is available.

Student Finance Marketing Update

The group received an update on SLC information advice and guidance for students and practitioners. Online and digital resources will be a key focus for the year ahead, building on the success of the Student finance quick start guide. SLC also plan to create more video content, which address specific issues highlighted through the contact centre or by practitioners.

Members offered their support to promote these resources to students and through their networks. SLC intends to work with practitioners and would like to promote resources created by practitioners (as well as practitioners promoting SLC resources).

You can view current SFE practitioner resource at www.practitioners.slc.co.uk/resources.

For SFW practitioner resources please visit www.studentfinancewales.co.uk/practitioners

 Ray Lock, SROC Representative, SLC Stakeholder Meeting.

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