Summary: Mrs W complains the Council failed to pay her University tuition fees although it said it would. Although it later agreed to pay, it told Mrs W it needed to reimburse her monthly payments rather than pay the full loan in one payment. There is evidence of fault as Mrs W has been caused time and trouble chasing up the Council, but this is not so significant that the Council should pay the full amount owed to the Student Loans Company in one payment.

The complaint

1. Mrs W says the Council verbally agreed to pay her tuition fees in full if she went to University but later said it would not. Following a complaint, she says the Council told her it would pay her loan in full once certain conditions were met. Mrs W says that upon those conditions being met, rather than paying her loan in full, as she had expected, the Council said it would reimburse her payments taken from her salary each month. Mrs W says this changes the terms of her agreement with the Council and considers the Council acted with fault.

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
3. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. If there has been fault which has caused an injustice, we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
4. We cannot question whether a council’s decision is right or wrong simply because the complainant disagrees with it. We must consider whether there was fault in the way the decision was reached. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
5. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
6. If we are satisfied with a council’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

7. I considered the information submitted by Mrs W with her complaint. I have also spoken to her husband, Mr W, on the telephone. We have also accessed websites on student debt and student loans more generally. I have sent Mrs W and the Council a copy of my draft decision and considered any observations made before reaching a final decision.

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What I found

What happened

8. Mrs W was a looked after child. This meant the Council acted as her corporate parent. She says that at some point before she went to university, the Council agreed to pay her tuition fees and then later refused. However, in 2017, it agreed to pay. It said: “[The Council] will agree to pay your tuition fee loan on your behalf once you are in full time employment and reach the threshold for repayment set out by the Government.” I am not investigating these events as they happened too long ago. In any event, Mrs W was content with this response.
9. In October 2018, Mrs W received correspondence from Student Finance stating that she owed £40,000 in tuition fees. She contacted the Council. The Council responded, confirming that it agreed to pay the loan. An officer said it would pass her request to the relevant department.
10. There appears to have been a period of delay at this point. In February 2019 Mrs W formally complained to the Council. But in June 2019, in the Council’s final response to Mrs W’s complaint, it confirmed again that it would “…meet your tuition fees.”
11. It went on to say that however, it could not justify using Council tax payers money to pay the fees in full “…as they are not due to be paid and in fact may never have to be repaid depending on your personal circumstances.”
12. The Council said it would reimburse Mrs W, monthly, for the payments she is asked to make to the Student Loans Company, which takes money from her salary before she receives it.
13. Mrs W says the Council had not said before that it intended to reimburse her. She says she expected payment in full and that the Council has inserted a new term into their agreement.
14. Mrs W wants the Council to pay the outstanding loan amount in full because she is “now liable to pay approximately £40,000 in tuition fees”. She complains that it will be inconvenient to have to contact the Council every month for the next 25 years to be reimbursed.

Analysis

15. Although Mrs W would like the Council to pay the loan in full, the Council does not consider this is a good use of public money. It says this is because the loan may never have to be fully repaid depending on Mrs W’s income over the time she needs to pay.
16. A House of Commons briefing paper on ‘Student Loan Statistics’ (from 2019) showed 94% of students who were eligible took out student loans and, in 2017-18, over 5.5m people were making payments or were liable for payments but hadn’t met the threshold to make them.
17. As the Council has accepted it will make payments, I cannot criticise it for not making those payments in the way Mrs W wants. There is no evidence its decision to reimburse Mrs W on a monthly basis was made with fault.
18. Mrs W says that the Council changed the terms of the agreement. I do not consider this is the case. Mrs W considers that when the Council said it would pay her tuition fees, it meant it would do so in one lump sum. That was, she says, what she understood. But the Council did not say it would do this. It did not specify exactly what the arrangements would be for payment.
19. In my view, what is relevant, and prevents Mrs W from suffering any significant injustice, is that she will not have to pay her tuition fees.
20. Mrs W’s view is the notification she has paid the Student Loan Company acts as a “monthly reminder” that she was in care. However, I do not consider this means the Council has a duty to pay the outstanding balance in full.
21. Mrs W says she is anxious in case the Council stops paying and she will have to take further action. She has had time and trouble pursuing the Council’s agreement to make payments. The Council did act with fault in failing to tell her at the outset how it would pay. This caused Mrs W an injustice as she felt she had to make a further complaint in order to get the information she needed. She was not expecting deductions from her salary to be made by the Student Loans Company once the Council accepted a duty to pay.
22. The Council should make a payment to her of £100 to acknowledge her time and trouble. The Council should also set out how it will ensure payments continue to Mrs W until they stop being due. There should be an emphasis on making this as simple for Mrs W to claim as possible.

Recommended action

23. Within a month of my final decision, the Council should:

• make a payment to Mrs W of £100 to acknowledge her time and trouble in chasing information about how payments of the loan would be made by the Council, and
• set out how it will reimburse payments Mrs W has already made and how it will continue to make payments until the expiry of the loan term.

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Final decision

24. I have found the Council to be at fault but not to the degree Mrs W suggests. She was caused an injustice and I have proposed recommendations to remedy that injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman