Run a business with my partner, designing, crafting and selling alternative clothing and accessories...
Run a business with my partner, designing, crafting and selling alternative clothing and accessories. You can check it out at www.freakclubwear.co.uk Vicky
Member since:06.12.2000
Reviews:41
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I am talking here about the deadline for the LEA form about you, which entitles you to a student loan and sets the amount of tuition fees you will have to pay. Then I will talk about the form for the student loan.
The LEA form ~~~~~~~~~
The deadline was 16th March for all those applying to study at University starting in September 2001.
Firstly DO NOT PANICK. Every year I manage to loose the form, forget, never got the form in the first place etc. It is certainly not ideal to fill the form in after the deadline, however it is certainly not the end of the world. All it means is your application will be processed after everyone else who made the deadline. Therefore at the start of your academic year it is not guaranteed you will have your student loan and there may be some problems arising regarding your tuition fees.
If you have forgotten all about this form the Local Education Authority (LEA) will remind you, sending you
increasingly insistent letters asking you to fill out the form and sending you a new copy of the form. However if you are reading this then you will be being reminded now so go to your LEA building – should be at your town’s council offices. If you don’t know where to go ask your school, friends, or even your potential University and someone should be able to tell you where to get a form from your LEA from.
As soon as you can fill the LEA form in and post it back. This form is needed for them to work out how much you should pay in tuition fees. It is also necessary for you to get a student loan from the Student Loans company.
I am not advocating that you fill the form in late, life will be a lot easier for yourself if you don’t. I am just trying to offer some comfort and advice to those of you who have missed the deadline already.
The Student Loans Company form ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is now totally separate to your LEA. After you have applied to study at University they will be in touch, believe me.
All that will happen if you do not fill out this form during the Spring before you begin studying is they will not guarantee you will get the loan for your first day of Uni. Therefore if you are relying on this money to afford your tuition fees and hall fees then you will be in trouble if you do not fill out the form well in advance of starting studying. However if this is the case you are likely to get into serious financial troubles as a year studying, inclusive of rent, bills, books, etc, basically everything, will cost you upwards of £5,000. Whereas the student loan is only around £2,300 (although it can be more in special cases if your parents are low income earners, but not much more, about £1,000 more at most). You do not need to be applying to do a financial degree to work out that relying on the loan to finance your studies alone will lead to problems….
So when is the deadline? The very latest you can apply for the student loan for an academic year is actually around the spring term of your university degree. It varies for different universities as it is actually based on when your specific course finishes (last time I checked I think it was 3 months but check this detail if you want to leave applying until later in the year but do not want to miss your opportunity). Up until this deadline you can apply for the student loan at any time, and you will receive plenty of reminders to do so from the Student Loans Company, all with the appropriate forms incase you have lost them.
General Information ~~~~~~~~~~~~
The tuition fees are means tested, based on your parents income. The most you will have to pay is roughly £1,400, although this amount increases gradually each year. You will be required to pay it within the first couple of months of the academic year starting if you do not want to have to pay an additional 10% on top of the amount.
The student loan will be paid in 3 installments. The first will be a cheque sent to your university for collection by you. The second and third will be put straight into your bank account so long as you give them your bank details. If you apply for the loan later in the academic year, you may receive two payments or even all three at once, depending on when you apply for it.
I would recommend you take out the student loan in your first year early on, even if you do not need it, as when you apply for it it will take about 2 months to actually get into your account. It can then be a backup incase you do need some money quickly at a later date, and as the rate of interest is only at the rate of inflation, you can store the money in a high interest bank account to make this money back, so you will not loose out by doing this.
You have to re-apply for the student loan and fill in the LEA form each year.
I have not covered whether you should get a student loan or how to cope with financial issues in this opinion, as I have covered these areas in several other opinions in the Education section.
I hope this has been of some use and reassurance to those of you who have missed the deadline and for all those applying for the students loan.
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Thanks for the info. My daughter just started uni and we were unsure how the loans worked. Good luck. Lisa
student9824 09.04.2001 10:32
Yup, you have the same fun, and the same number of forms to fill out every year for the LEA - to work out how much you should pay in tuition fees, and to apply for the student loan! AARRGGH!
Kram_Eniarrol 04.04.2001 09:29
If you will be studying and living in London, you can get up to £4500 student loan. I have one question: do you have to reapply every year?
Advantages: interest free money only rises with inflation, hardship top up if desperate Disadvantages: LEA assess amount so may not get much eg if living at home in comparison to living away
Advantages: Instant money, Availability to lend every year. Disadvantages: The fact that there is interest on it, A fear of getting a loan because of this.
eaglesas 22.09.2001 ·
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