Committee finds that centralising student loans services was a high risk

The Company began assessing applications from new students in the first year of the plan and performance in processing applications and communicating with students was completely unacceptable; many students waited weeks or months for their financial support. Fewer than half of all applications were fully processed by the start of term, and applications took on average a third longer to process than local authorities had achieved.

The Student Loans Company answered fewer than half the calls it received in 2009; in September 87% of calls went unanswered.

Disabled students suffered disproportionately in 2009, as the Company devoted too few staff to processing their applications.

The Company also demonstrated a number of IT failings in 2009: most importantly, it did not sufficiently test its crucial document scanning - the failure of which was the catalyst for the failure of the entire system.

The report finds that the Department underestimated the risks of centralising the service, the Programme Board lacked skills and experience, and there was poor communication between the Programme Board, the Company's Board, and the Department.

Committee recommendations include:

• The Department and the Company should develop clear, customer-focused targets for all loans, grants and allowances.
• Full and open communication between all tiers of management is necessary.
• The Department should monitor the performance of the Company and intervene quickly and decisively wherever quality of service provided falls short of standards expected.

By 2011, the Company will be responsible for applications from all students in England.

Found this story interesting?
Spread the news by clicking below to add it to your bookmarking service:

• Del.icio.us
• Digg this
• Reddit!