By Gareth Francis

The River has received dozens of letters from students caught up in late loan misery after breaking the story last week.

Thousands of students across the country have been left in financial turmoil as they wait for loan and grant payments to arrive.

The Student Loans Company (SLC) has left 146,000 students without funding at the start of term and is yet to complete processing on thousands of applications.

Many who have received their first payment have been stuck with only partial or basic funding.

NUS president Wes Streeting blasted the SLC saying: “This year, hundreds of thousands of students have been affected by late payments or lost documents and have endured a miserable start to term.”

He added: “SLC bosses have failed to acknowledge the distress they have caused to students and have sought to apportion blame anywhere other than their own doorstep.

"If they had been open about the extent of the problems, universities would have been able to plan contingency funding more effectively. It is time for Ralph Seymour-Jackson to take full responsibility for this shambles and resign immediately.”

First year film student Avril Puchon is one of thousands of Kingston University students who has suffered from the serious incompetence of the SLC.

She said: “I’ve had no end of trouble with my loan. I applied at the beginning of the year for my tuition fee loan and maintenance loan. After applying online I heard nothing from them for months. Then they sent me paper copies of all the forms I filled out online. Assuming that they hadn’t received my online application I filled in these forms in and sent them back.”

Ms Puchon then received several letters from the SLC, each giving her conflicting information on the loan she should receive.

“I felt very confused and worried that I might have had to fund my own way through university.”

Ms Puchon said she felt “let down by the system” and would have been forced to drop out if it wasn’t for financial support she received from friends and family.

She branded Student Finance England “a disgrace” adding: “Over a month after I started uni I finally seem to be getting to the bottom of this massive problem.”