student-finance.service.gov.uk Reviews 

WHERE TO START!?

This is a branch of the government, so I can't give SFE any leeway. This company is absolutely appalling. They have made me stressed to the point of being physically sick on several occasions.

They have sent me money by mistake and then demanded it back. They have affirmed loan amounts, and then a month later they have withdrew the offer to "review more evidence". They have told me two directly conflicting things within the same day, which could have cost me £1,300 had I not called to rectify it. They have misdirected money I have sent them by mistake on several occasions. They have littered my parents' house with letters due to a system error. They have missed crucial deadlines on multiple occasions.

I am speaking literally when I say that I am unable to think of a single instance where this company was helpful, and we have shared about 50 phone calls together. Every single time the call was stressful and unpleasant, not to mention the 15-30 minute waiting time.

Note: I put 'Date of experience' in today's date, but the issues I faced were in 2016, 2018 and most prominently in 2024 for my masters' degree. Due to their incompetence, despite them saying I can do the course, and my spending thousands in preparation, now it is becoming likely that they won't fund me for it, as they changed their mind once again to "Review more evidence", and keep pushing back my notification date to the point that now I would be starting my course before I even know if I can pay for it.

If I could rate 0 stars or minus stars I would. I hope this branch gets shut down. It's an absolute mockery of our government.

I am so fed up and shocked at the appalling customer service at Student Finance England. I must have wasted a days life trying to sort out my sons application, God knows how a teenager is supposed to deal with this. Terrible call wait times and then you are put through to an adviser that doesn't speak English, I cant believe that SFE have their call centres outside of the UK. How are you supposed to discuss important financial information with someone that can't speak your language?
I have made an appeal again my sons award as their calculations are clearly incorrect, on the website its says 5 days to respond, I have just been told its now 40 days as the appeals department are so busy........no sh.. !!!!!!
I started this application in April and i will not get a final decision now until my son has started Uni....disgusting company, shame on you.

Was informed I was due a refund from the previous tax year (2022-2023) via email so logged in to check the details of that refund.

No information about the actual refund was given on the portal once I was logged in - just a balance of how much I still owe. So I went to check previous years statements which only goes to April 2022... even though I've personally received these statements since 2019 up to now (2024) via post, it is not available online?? What?

Fine. So no up-to-date information regarding any of my payments which have resulted in the aforementioned refund - so I click on "request a refund" hoping to be given a financial breakdown of why and how much I will receive as the refund. No. Nothing at all. Just another hyperlink to request an unknown amount of money for reasons I won't be shown? Come on this is basic online account management and I expect much better from a government department handling people's money.

Extremely poor experience.

As a single father, I submitted all the necessary documentation to the Student Finance England (SFE) in accordance with their guidelines to receive the parental learning allowance. Despite multiple submissions, my circumstances and the provided documentation were not taken into consideration. When attempting to speak with an advisor, I experienced lengthy wait times on the phone, only to be connected with individuals who lacked the knowledge and information to provide accurate assistance.

Waited 45 minutes for someone to answer the phone, i get student finance is busy around this time so i could live with it. That was until the most clueless advisor Josh answered and put me on hold 6 times whenever I asked him a question. I was on the phone for another 15 minutes after he answered and got literally no information. Then i was asked to wait a second again after asking him another question that he had disregarded the first time and he hung up the phone call. Interesting customer service!

I send the document last week for suporting my application with tracking number they confirm to me on the phone they receve the document and now saying they dont find the documents witch I post them last year do the same and one year before... this people they does intentionally just to delay payments ..

Oh my...
Worst communication with a Government embodiment, across three countries in which I've lived
Due date for updates to given, missed with success several times
They couldn't find the course name for over 8 weeks and bare in mind, They represent the government, they are in contact with Their schools. Disapointed from A to Z. And for sure, they have to win out of this, more than us that go to Uni to get 10000£ more / year
Once you apply the uncertainty start developing

I am allowing one more week of sleep to these guys and cancel my application

My advice Go and study elsewhere

I have never known such an incompetent company in my life and I've been alive quite a long time.

The phone lines are automated for a start, which just doesn't take into account the needs of disabled students.

I have had to evidence the same things repeatedly to staff who don't seem to listen. There seems to be a complete lack of critical thought. The amount of stress it has caused me as a disabled student is immense.

There is no way to just send an email and deal with matters in a reasonable way. It all has to be done through the system or you have to wait for considerable amounts of time to deal with 'mostly' incompetent staff'.

I've had enough stress to go through to get to where I am, due to health issues without dealing with this each year.

I had an issue with the processing which resulted in me calling to query about it. I had an agent by the name Travis who was so patient and very kind. He solved the issue almost immediately and seemed well prepared for anything. Thank you Travis

My experience of Student Finanace England has been characterised by mistakes and miscommunication. My two children received different loan offers for the same academic year. Sorting the mistake out was difficult and time-consuming because the telephone agents didn't seem to understand the issue, have the authority to access the system or be able to clearly communicate.

I had great experience. The agent named Casey i spoke with, was very patient, helpful and calm. He went trough the whole process with me and explain everything in plain language so i can assimilate and understand it. That was one of the most valuable services i experienced.

Our son is planning to go to the Leeds Conservatoire and we applied for student finance for him. The online application never worked for either myself or my spouse ! Once the accounts were created we could never get back into it to submit the required information. WE called the office and a nice lady guided us through the process and the system still wouldn't find our application!! We have had to sent it by post in the end!!! Looks like Student Finance England still operates in the previous century.....

After holding onto the phone for 40 minutes.
Just Spoke to the most Rude and Abnovious person who just was not listening to anything I say.
Extremely rude and unhelpful
That's probably why they don't record the conversations. Really want to escalate to someone, but this monopoly organisation doesn't believe in customer service

I usually hate everything that stands with SFE but on 23 July 2024 I spoke with José (or Hose, not sure how its written), the man made me forget I was speaking with someone from sfe, absolutely lovely attitude, calming and most important FRIENDLY. The way he spoke needs to be studied and taught to others. Assisted me with my query and gave advice on top of that, rare example of a gentleman who knows what hes doing ! Thank you

An abhorrent company... I live abroad and every year receive very threatening letters about updating my employment details to see if I am eligible for repayments. This year is my first year being purely self-employed, and I uploaded a tax return at the beginning of May. The company contacted me on the 14th of June requesting further evidence, which I promptly sent them and was enough to prove that I am not eligible for repayments. However, they had already put me automatically onto a repayment plan in June (despite the fact that not providing further evidence was due to their own delay in notifying me of this need). Luckily this has been rectified, but all communication with and action from this company feel very aggressive and predatory.

I just quit working as a trainee agent for SFE. I get now why there are so many negative reviews. The training they provide is inadequate. After 2 weeks of showing power points, they expect newbie agents to take live calls. I had enough of angry frustrated callers who I was not able to assist swiftly because of the quality of training and not receiving any support. There is minimal side-by-side assistance, just an hour of watching someone take calls, what they call buddying. SFE is more complicated than rocket science. Trainees should not be expected to take live calls unassisted.

I had called SFE multiple times regarding an issue I was having none of the staff offered me the help I need and just when I was about to give up I come across Keera thinking she will not be able to help me I was about delay my application she went above and beyond to help me and Im so grateful. Hope she see this.

Absolutely no help. Can't change password gives a number to call. After waiting for over 30 minutes person on the phone very unhelpful and rude.

Another long call, 1:59mins to be cut off because they clearly can't deal with my query. This is the second time i have been cut off so a common tactic! I was querying an overpayment, he didn't even know what income applies to the academic year, they can't find the forms, then magically they appear, full of abbreviations CRN, CYI, PR2 when asking questions simply not fit to advise. A student ready to drop out with a £1k 24/25 award, scandalous :(

Absolutely awful, submitted info 10th April, was accepted straight away for my daughter which is great, they was using our info for my son so should have been accepted straight away….. 3 months on and still waiting after sending them our info 4-5 times and numerous phone calls, and apparently they still don’t have our info?? Makes absolutely no sense as they have it when we gave it for my daughter,and also the times we had to send it for my son. SORT IT OUT, waited long enough!!!!!