financial stress (or university woes part 4)

[baratron]

I am very, very stressed about university-related things.

The big one is money. This course costs £1075 for home students. Now, I am apparently eligible to get this fee paid for by my Local Education Authority. But although they should be paying it, I have to apply to the LEA myself. Eeek!

(Now, I'm fairly sure when I did my first degree, a lot of the paperwork got sorted out by the university or UCAS. But I could be misremembering because I was under 21 and thus it would've been my parents who had to fill stuff in rather than me. So that's a very minor moan.)

But eeek! if I don't have an official letter from the LEA on the first day of the course, I'll have to somehow find that money myself!! And I have, er, precisely 7 working days before the course starts. Fuck!

And the next thing. I am entitled to a "training salary" of £6000 to be paid in 9 installments of £666.66 (!). The first installment will be paid on 5th October. The course starts on 15th September. So I have to support myself for three weeks on... nothing. My credit card is absolutely maxed out and I don't really have any savings. I'll have to borrow another couple of hundred pounds from my mum to live on. Oh joy.

Then the information here about student loans is confusing and contradictory. My plan was to get a student loan (which is very low interest) to pay off my credit card and other debts. But apparently it will take several months for the student loan application to get processed: while my credit card interest piles up. The "easy" solution would be to apply for another card which has 0% interest on balance transfers for 6 months - but then I'd have two lots of credit instead of one, and I'm not sure I could trust myself not to use the paid-off card. (I'm fairly sensible with money, but I feel that's just asking for trouble).

....sigh. Not really asking for advice so much as support to help me get through this turgid morass of bureaucracy. I fucking hate paperwork.

Comments

[rowan-leigh.livejournal.com]

Cut the paid-off credit card into little bits once you have the other?
*hugs*
I should be coming to Nodnol at the weekend - would you like some assistance on Saturday or Sunday?

[baratron.livejournal.com]

Cut the paid-off credit card into little bits once you have the other?

Won't help, unfortunately, as 95% of what I use the card for is online purchases. And I wouldn't want to start using the new card instead, as I rather like my existing card, because some small percentage of what I spend gets sent off to charity.

I think by the weekend I'll have wrestled with the bureaucratic beasts enough to have tamed them a bit, but I appreciate the support :) If KCL weren't so bloody useless, I'd have been able to avoid some of this stress. Grrr.

[esbat.livejournal.com]

Most of this stuff was probably handled by your school last time...

Hope you get it sorted soon dear. *hugs*

[lizw.livejournal.com]

The first installment will be paid on 5th October. The course starts on 15th September.

I'm afraid it's fairly normal for professional salaries to be paid monthly in arrears - I had the same thing both in my old job and my current one.

[mankylarry.livejournal.com]

If you have the time and inclination, go to your LEA with your completed form in hand, go through the form with one of the people to make sure that it's completed correctly ( for their purposes, so they don't send it back ) and get a reciept on headed paper to confirm that the form was handed in on such a date, that way at least you will have something to show the people at registration, and they will probably take it into consideration given that the course is eleigible for funding.

Also remember that you are not the only person in that boat, and Universities are aware that there is often a time lag between the LEA processing the forms, and the University invoicing sponsors for fee payment. Also as soon as you enrol, go to the Welfare office, and apply for Hardship or Access funds, which may be a temporary loan to help you out for a short period of time. You may or maynot be eligible for it, but it's worth a try, usually these funds are small, but £50 is better than a kick in the teeth, when you got no money.

Laurence

[johnckirk.livejournal.com]

One option would be to talk to your bank - they may be willing to extend the limit on your credit card, or give you a temporary overdraft on your current account, or even a loan. Lloyds were surprisingly friendly about this when I spoke to them last year (before I started my MSc).