A STUDENT has revealed how she has been left with just £3 for the next academic year after mixing up her loan application.
Shadna Ismail, from West London, was expecting to receive a £3000 maintenance grant, but says her “heart stopped” when she realised her mistake.
The 19-year-old shared the blunder on social media on Thursday after she failed to receive her first payment and went to check her student finance account.
The University of Roehampton student posted a screenshot showing how her application has been processed as just £3 to last her the whole year.
The breakdown further reveals how the payment has been divided up into two installments of 99p and one for £1.02 to be handed out over the coming terms.
A tickled Shadna took to Twitter to share the gaffe, posting the screengrab with the caption: “Not me applying for £3 instead of 3k”.
Shadna’s post, which has since been liked more than 40,000 times, has had other social media users in hysterics.
@A6Asap wrote: “Student Finance England didn’t even question the loan, that’s what has me spinning.”
@imanahmed added: “Don’t stress, you can buy a Tesco meal deal at the end of the year.”
@bbyjewelx said: “Don’t you dare tell me they broke it up into three payments,
I know the person processing this laughed their ass off that shift.”
And @AFCHopeful joked: “Probably still won’t be able to pay it off with their extortionate interest.”
Speaking today, biomedical science student Shadna explained: “On my application when it asks you how much you would like to take I wrote ‘3k’ thinking it was applicable and that they would understand, but clearly they didn’t.
“It was lowkey my fault I should have written 3,000.
“They didn’t even email me to confirm if it was correct, they just went ahead and approved it.
“It was only because they said I would get my first payment on the 21st and I said that I didn’t, I went to check and then I saw it.
“At first I thought my eyes were going crazy and I sent it to my friend to see if that’s what I was seeing then when she said ‘yeah it’s £3’ I genuinely screamed, as in my heart stopped.
“I literally went through every emotion, shock, laughter.
“I’ve spoken to Student Finance and they have told me what to do now.”
A spokeswoman for the Student Loans Company said: “We appreciate that there is a lot for students to think about as they return to study at this time and, of course, it’s easy for them to make a mistake.
“We process almost 2 million applications per year, many of which are processed automatically and the Student Loans Company can only award funding based on the information provided by the applicant.
“If we are made aware of a student error, we try and resolve it for them quickly. We encourage all students to complete their applications carefully, read their entitlement letters carefully, and get in touch with us if there is anything that doesn’t seem right.”