Student accidentally applies for 3 quid maintenance loan instead of £3,000

Don’t spend it all at once!


A uni student living in London has been given a £3 maintenance loan instead of £3,000 due to a mistake in the application process, which she called “lowkey my fault”.

Shadna Ismail applied for a £3,000 loan from Student Finance England because she’s living at home this year, but when the email came through telling her the amounts that she was due, the instalments were 99p, 99p and £1. It was at this point she realised she’d probably done something wrong.

“I made a really stupid mistake of writing 3k in the space where it asks you instead of writing the £3,000, so it was lowkey my fault,” she told The Tab.

“But what’s crazy is that SFE didn’t even email me to confirm it was correct they just went ahead and approved it. I literally wrote 3k with a huge K to make it knowwnnnnn and now I’m stuck with three quid.”

Shadna’s tried to get in contact with SFE to amend the loan, but says “no one is answering” her phonecalls. She says she’ll try to submit another application for student finance, but “we all know that’s gonna take forever.”

Luckily Shadna’s living at home this year, or she’d be about £6,997 down on her student halls rent payment. As for what she’s planning on doing with her three quid? When she tweeted her grievances, people came up with plenty of ideas. “Don’t stress you can buy a Tesco meal deal at the end of the year” and “The McDonald’s triple cheeseburger is only £2.19” were among the most helpful.

Student Finance England was contacted for comment.

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