Student loans firm Erudio leaves graduates fuming over latest error
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Version 0 of 1. The private company that took over 250,000 loans from the Student Loan Company has left graduates in turmoil after it wrongly sent letters demanding early repayments. Every year graduates with older-style student loans can defer making repayments if they earn less than £28,828, but Erudio Student Loans failed to send annual deferral forms to thousands of graduates, and then sent letters saying payments would start within weeks. The administrative chaos has left graduates fuming. One forum on moneysavingexpert.com runs to 259 pages of complaints from angry young people told they must pay even though their earnings are not at the repayment level. After the Guardian contacted Erudio, it issued a public apology. In a statement on its website the company, which is part of the debt collectors Arrow Global, said: “We have identified a number of our customers received their Deferment Application packs in March, which unfortunately, did not include all the relevant paperwork. In some cases, this included the deferment forms themselves. As a result of this, at a later date some customers were sent reminders having not previously received relevant documentation. “We apologise unreservedly to those customers affected for any inconvenience caused. We will be contacting all the customers impacted in the next few days. Their deferment date will be extended to ensure they have 56 days to apply for deferment. In addition, the maturity date on their loans will be extended to ensure there will be no financial detriment.” Graduates said they were bewildered by Erudio’s administrative problems. Many say that the company didn’t just fail to include some vital paperwork, but never sent out packs in the first place. Jane’s* story is typical: “My current deferment period expires in just five weeks, yet Erudio have still not sent me a deferment application form. On 30 March, I received a letter from them dated 24 March stating that I would have to start paying back the loan on 10 May, so I immediately phoned them and informed them that I had not received a DAF. Their response was to claim that they had sent one out on 23 March, as well as the letter of 24 March and another letter which they alleged was sent out two days ago stating that they had not received the DAF yet. “I asked them to send me another DAF just in case the one they allegedly sent out on 23 March didn’t arrive. In any case, even if they had sent out the original DAF on 23 March, that would have put its dispatch significantly later than the minimum of eight weeks required for a DAF to be in the recipient’s hands before the end of the current deferment period.” Mark* has run Twitter account @Erudioed since the problems with the company began in 2013. Like other borrowers who contacted the Guardian he is reluctant to be identified in case it affects his dealings with the organisation. He said: “This highlights the problems people are having with this company. They don’t listen to their customers and don’t treat them fairly.” An Erudio spokesperson said that about 7,000 people were affected by DAFs not being sent out and that its ultimate aim was to ensure borrowers weren’t in a better or worse position due to error – for some this would mean the maturity date of their loan would be later. The company denied the event was a deliberate tactic to force graduates to repay loans and said rectifying the situation was top of its agenda. Erudio bought a book of old-style student loans previously administered by the Student Loans Company from the government in 2013. Since then, however, it has been dogged by complaints, not just about difficulties deferring loans but also how it shares customer data. It has stated that it may share loan information with credit reference agencies, despite students originally being sold the loans on the understanding the debt would not appear on credit records. * Names have been changed to protect privacy |