More than 100,000 students are still waiting for loans and grant money halfway through term, it emerged today.
The Student Loans Company is making slow progress through the backlog of applications, figures suggest, with only 13,000 receiving their payments since the last statistics were released.
At the beginning of the month 119,000 students with approved funding applications were awaiting money to cover rent and tuition fees. A further 23,000 applications were still being processed and 35,000 students were asked to provide more information to back up their claim.
The rate of payments made by the SLC has dropped from 14,000 a week to 13,000 a week.
An independent review of the problems is being led by two government-appointed troubleshooters, the former London South Bank University vice-chancellor Sir Deian Hopkin and Bernadette Kenny of HM Revenue and Customs.
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David Willetts, the Shadow Universities Secretary, said: “More than a month into the new university term, thousands of students are experiencing real hardship because of the Government’s mismanagement. Ministers have failed to deliver the improved service they promised, failed to recognise the scale of the problem, and failed to help students struggling to stay afloat.
“There is worrying evidence that disabled students and those from poorer households have been among the hardest hit. It is vital that the Government stops dithering and gets a grip on the system before the next group of students start in January.”
Some students have been forced to drop out of courses because they cannot afford to carry on without student support. Universities have paid out thousands in emergency funding and students have been forced to amass debt on credit cards or rely on parents while they wait for their payments.
The SLC blames the huge number of applications this year — the first time it has administered grants as well as loans.
Ralph Seymour-Jackson, chief executive of the SLC, said that they had met their target of payment to students who sent information in on time. “We are delighted we fulfilled our promise to pay, by the end of October, all students who had provided the correct evidence by the end of August. This has resulted in full payment to 27,000 students. We are sorry for the delay that these students have experienced in receiving their full funding.
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“We are continuing to work around the clock to process the applications that we have received in the past two months. Even where applications are late, we appreciate that students should not have to wait long to have their forms processed and their money paid.”