wtf studylink?

[Gremlin]

I rang IRD late last week (use the key phrase student loans)... Provide your IRD number, answer some more questions confirming your identity, and ask about loan balance, could they send a statement out please, etc.

They say they should send them out twice to sometimes three times per year, but could see I hadn't been sent one in over a year.

I actually found the guy I spoke really helpful, onto it, and answered all my questions easily, with a great phone manner. Surprising as hell, but fantastic!!

[xwhatsit]

I could never make head or tail of the statements they sent me, they never added up

sadly I just accepted it, they were only paying uni fees, and I haven't had a single statement in 2.5 years since I left uni.

Useless... they would be out of jobs in the private sector.

That's the safest way methinks, that's how I'm doing it, they're just paying the uni fees. The flip side of that is I have to work quite a few hours every week to earn enough money to get by, and my marks have almost certainly suffered as a result. But still better than borrowing living costs and having to pay absurd amounts of money back later when a right-wing government gets in power and puts interest back on the student loans.

But they even manage to screw up `only' paying uni fees. Just about got booted out of my courses a few semesters ago because (despite applying well ahead of time) somehow they hadn't got around to actually handing that money to the University.

[Phurrball]

What Gremlin said is correct Rob -

Studylink administer the current year's loan (ie this year's fees, living costs and course related costs - you talk to them to make changes to the active load) and at the end of the year, they pass the total balance for that year onto the IRD who administer repayments through the PAYE taxation system.

It is all in the contract - you did read it didn't ya?!