Students in library Pic: Nicolò Paternoster
Bulgarian and Romanian higher education students in East and South London face financial insecurity after the government decided to suspend all forms of support for maintenance loan applicants last month.
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) announced at the end of November that they were going to freeze maintenance loans after what they deemed a “significant increase” in applications from Bulgarian and Romanian higher education students.
In the UK, around 5,500 Bulgarian and Romanian students receiving the loan have been affected.
Maintenance loans are only available for students who have lived in the UK for three years prior to the beginning of their course. For those receiving maintenance loans, this measure will also mean their tuition fee loan will be suspended whilst checks are being carried out.
One of the students affected is Bulgarian second-year student Dayana Atanasova, 19, from Goldsmiths College.
Atanasova, who lived in the UK for the required three years before beginning her course, said she was shocked to find that she had been unwillingly withdrawn from her course: “I hadn’t been contacted. I only found out because I checked my application – I only did it because I wanted to find out when the next instalment of my loan was going to reach me.”
Atanasova added: “The next day, I received what looked like an auto-generated email from Student Finance telling me I’d been withdrawn from my course and I had to start repaying in 2016.”
The BIS claims to have written to all students affected, however many may still not be aware that they will not receive the next instalment of their loan in January, leaving them unable to pay rent.
BIS said the payments will be reinstated as soon as students provide additional information proving how long they have lived in the country.
Atasanova does not believe Goldsmiths is responsible for the incident.
A University spokesperson said: “Goldsmiths was not informed of this action in advance by Student Finance England. We will be doing everything possible to assist and support all affected students.”
The University is now helping the student to be re-instated.
The measure comes shortly before the restrictions on Romanian and Bulgarian immigration are to be dropped on January 1.
A Bulgarian Embassy spokesperson said: “The Embassy has reacted firmly against the decision about the suspension of student support payments to Bulgarian and Romanian nationals because even though the measure has a temporary nature it represents a negative selection only for Bulgarian and Romanian students.”
BIS has since rectified its focus on Romanian and Bulgarian nationals saying: “We have asked all EU citizens applying for maintenance support to supply this additional information.”
Shambhavi Bhat, International Officer at Goldsmiths Students’ Union, commented: “This is a purely rhetorical move on the run-up to January, a quick way to show that the government is taking action, but they haven’t thought the process through.”
The National Union of Students has also expressed concern for the lack of communication with the students, which they believe has caused “much confusion.”
Daniel Stevens, NUS international students officer said: “It is incredibly unfair to target groups of students by cutting them off and asking them to provide three years’ worth of evidence at such short notice.”
Atasanova also said: “The Student Loan Company never asked me to provide evidence of having lived here for more than three years, they only asked me to prove my parents’ financial situation. They only asked ‘When did you first arrive?’ And that was it.”
I found this measure very abusive. It should not affect the students who already received loans as we presume their documents have been checked. Otherwise how they received the maintainance loan if there was any doubt to qualify or not on residence criteria??
My son, student in University of Exeter in his second year there was affected by this last moment decision to frose the funds until further check. It is very upseting especially when is happening close to New Year and also before the exams in January.
My children and myself been in UK for more than 6 years, we always worked, paid our taxes and contributed to this society.Really unfair treatment. But than, as I always said, moving here was our choice and is our duty to respect the British laws. But what if the people who apply the laws don’t always know what they are doing? Let’s hope they will check the application fast so the students will not be affected for very long…
This is straight racism why only freeze those of EU that do not have English passport
My wife and son are both year 3 students, at different Universities. They have provided evidence of their residence before the beginning of their course.
The first we kew about this discriminatory act was when they received letters from the SLC asking for repayments of their past financing, supposedly for overpayment. On calling them we were informed that we need to provide evidence of residence from 6 years ago. We lived in the UK for more than 6 years, but who keeps all bills and bank statements for 6 years or more?
Despite the government claim, this does not apply to all EU students – only to Romanians and Bulgarians. It is in direct breach of a whole list of UK and EU laws.
I am one of the affected students from Wembley College Regent I am in this country for more than 7 years by now but due to the fact I am a wear a Romanian stamp I have to prove the last 3 years of my “residence” I send them every letter I had from 2009 till now and they said that wont prove that i live here… they dont want to see residence … they want to see if you paid money to this system or not. I lost my opportunities that i had last year when i started college and since then i lost my house as i had to pay rent and i olso had to go to school. Most of my time spent in England due to the limits we had as Romanian to working permit I did charity work With reference for few studios across London with great impact on public and who ever had the benefit out of my work… and just 2 days ago when i told them that even if i never afforded to keep a credit card as no employer would of pay me as a DOP in bank account as it was ilegal for me to have that position. I open a bank account in 2009 and i close it at 2011 and since then i dont have any other bills or utilities. exept letters with reference from the production companies that i do work for. They say is not going to be acceptable what conclusion shoul i get out of this when i know i am far longer than 3 years in this place and is not just me that does other all the cameras from brunt oak brodway and brunt oak underground station can confirm that for me . THIS CAMERUN THING SUCKS and I want to tell him a message to on this one… Im homeless because of you mister …. and dont worry there are many like me .