HUNDREDS of Jersey university students and their families are facing financial uncertainty as many are still waiting for their government grants to be processed, a campaign group has said.
Nicki Heath, from the Student Loan Support Group Jersey, which provides support and information to parents whose children are going to university, estimated that around 1,000 applications for grants were yet to be processed and awarded by the Student Finance Department.
She said that, as a result, many students travelling to university were facing an uncertain future.
Islanders can receive financial help from the government, on a means-tested basis, to enable them to study at university. There is support of up to £9,250 a year to cover tuition fees and a maintenance grant of up to £7,718 for an academic year.
Mrs Heath said: ‘There has been a backlog created as many returning students have received their results later than normal this year and so their application for a grant has been processed later. This, in combination with those who have just finished their A-levels and are applying for a grant, has created a huge volume of applications to sort through and I don’t think Student Finance have the staff to deal with it.’
She added: ‘We have heard from various parents and students that the information they sent as part of their application has gone missing and they are having to resend things. Others have tried to ring Student Finance and not got through to them. The problem is if they answer the phone, they can’t sort through applications but if they sort through applications they can’t answer the phone.’
Mrs Heath said that applications should have been processed earlier so that students could go away ‘with certainty on the funding they will receive’.
‘We have noticed a lot more universities are now asking for confirmation of payment for fees in order to confirm a student’s place,’ she said. ‘When it comes to accommodation, landlords will be asking where their money is.
‘If people don’t have their grant letter, some parents may be able to cover the costs while they wait for confirmation but others on low incomes won’t have the money to do so and this creates anxiety and unnecessary hardship,’ she added.
Mrs Heath said that while in previous years, it had taken until October for all of the applications to be processed, this year’s backlog could push this back further.
‘Another worry is what happens if a students gets to university but then receives their grant letter and doesn’t qualify for as much as they were expecting. What do they do then?’ she asked.
‘You have got new students taking their first steps into independence, already nervous about moving away and then they are faced with money problems. They are contacting parents back home who are already worried about their child moving away.
‘This stalemate situation where no one knows what is going on really needs to be resolved.
