East Slope freshers met with £1000 rent rise for next term as system fails to update

Sussex University Freshers have been met with a rent increase of £1000 after the university payment system fails to update, The Sussex Tab can reveal.

As a result of the national lockdown, students who are currently unable to return to campus were not charged for their January rent instalment. This has meant the remaining fees have rolled over to the next rent instalment in April.

Students living on-campus in East Slope logged into their Sussex Direct account and were met with their direct debit plan for rent in April. It showed £3,049.92 rather than £2,047.74

Jessica, a first year student and East Slope resident spoke to The Tab about her concerns after seeing such a significant increase of rent. She said: “I’m very upset that we weren’t even given a heads up about the £1000 increase on the April payment. My student finance does not completely cover my rent, and if I had spent January’s student finance payment my parents would have had to pay over £1000 to cover my rent.

“I know a lot of people who are planning on spending all of their January payment. If they don’t know about the increase then this could plunge them further into their overdrafts and further into debt.”

Below is the original payment plan for East Slope rent:

A spokesperson from The University of Sussex spoke to The Tab about the increase of rent students are seeing on their Sussex Direct account. They said: “Early this month we wrote to all students who are not able to live in their University managed accommodation due to the current lockdown that they are not required to pay rent from 4 January 2021 during the current lockdown.  These fees will be deducted from payment plans.  Students should not worry if their payment plan has not been updated, this will happen shortly and we will let students know when this has happened.”

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