Oral Question to the Secretary of State for Education and Skills

Speech by Norman Lamb on Thu 28th Oct 2004

Norman Lamb:

How many higher education students are waiting to receive their student loans for the current academic year?

The Minister for Lifelong Learning, Further and Higher Education (Dr. Kim Howells):

Of the 807,000 applications received so far, only 73,000 are still being processed, all of which were received after the published deadlines. Local authorities and the Student Loans Company have never been able to guarantee payment at the start of term to late applicants. Where necessary, we have invoked contingency action to release interim payments to existing students who applied by the deadline but whose assessment could not be completed by the start of term. As in previous years, the Department has written to higher education institutions asking them to be supportive of students who do not have loans in place at the start of term.

Norman Lamb:

The Minister says that students who applied on time will have got their money, and indeed the latest news on the Department's website, dated 8 September, still says that those who applied on time should get their money by the start of term; yet my constituent, Jackie Benny, has written to me to say that her daughter is still waiting—although she has at last received the interim payment of £1,000 this week—does not know how much she will get overall, and is being pressured by the college to make the payments. Can he increase pressure on colleges to ensure that they treat students sympathetically, and can he also do more work with the LEAs that are having problems—there are lots in Norfolk—in getting the applications processed on time?

Dr. Howells:

As I understand it, Norfolk county council is one of the LEAs that has been experiencing particular difficulties with processing. Interim payments have been made—I am glad that the hon. Gentleman's constituent's daughter has received hers—but I undertake to find out precisely where the difficulty has arisen.