Living in Kafkaland

Posted by Colin Harvey Oct 28, 2009

Good news: I spoke to Student Finance England.

Bad news: Oh, it's coming -- the bad news, that is...

A caveat here: I've not yet spoken to the same person twice, and I've not had the same story twice, but this one had the ring of truth.

Yes, I've had my loans, thank you. But not my grant.

Let me see....she muttered. Ah yes, Colin, you pressed the wrong button. So although we've got all your paperwork on file, but we can't going to do anything about it. You pressed the 'I want to be assessed on the data I've provided' button, rather than the 'I'd like to be means-tested for further payment' button. Easily done. Lots of people do it, actually. So you need to print out a paper application form, and send it with the covering letter explaining what happened.

I'm afraid that although you sent your supporting evidence four months ago, you will have to join at the back of the queue, and no, we couldn't have written to you advising you of the error as we do not initiate responses.

So although I qualify for grants, they won't be coming through for some time --assuming I haven't made another 'error' this time-- and the loan only covered October's bills. We'll muddle through somehow, but it makes it even more imperative that I put in as many hours as possible at the Eye Hospital. But how Kafka-esque is it that pressing a wrong button can send you into serious, serious debt?

I'm not as badly off as some, either.

I spoke to a friend yesterday, a single mother who because she was late with her application (and I'm guessing that a brain hemorrage hospitalizing her for two months might count as mitigating circumstances) has not even had the loan. And the Uni have just taken a thousand pounds from her account for tuition fees. A friend has loaned her the next month's rent money, but beyond that she faces the very real possibility that she and her two teenage daughters will be made homeless.

And there is no-one at Student Finance England that she can talk to who can make a decision. The decision makers are entirely removed from the people their decisions affect.

Ah, Franz, you knew not of what you wrote...