'Huge relief' as students given loans in error get repayment reprieve

'Huge relief' as students given loans in error get repayment reprieve14 minutes agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleBranwen JeffreysEducation EditorGetty ImagesAround 22,000 university students who were told they would have to urgently repay maintenance loans and childcare grants that were given to them in error have been given a reprieve.The government has announced that the affected loans will be repaid through the usual student finance route, and repayments on grants are paused until "at least" September.It follows a row in which weekend students were told their courses had never been eligible for student finance and should instead have been classed as distance learning.The National Union of Students said the decision came as a "huge relief", and that not having to start repaying within months will have taken "pressure off their mental health".It's just a few weeks since students, including some on nursing or teaching courses, were suddenly told they had never been entitled to maintenance loans and childcare grants, and would have to repay them on an "accelerated timescale".The Student Loan Company had been instructed by ministers to make clear to universities that courses delivered at the weekend, some including online components, should have been classed as distance learning.The regulations had been in place since 2011, according to the government, which blamed universities for not being clear through either "incompetence or abuse of the system".In the House of Commons, MP Josh MacAlister said the government had asked the Student Loans Company to "collect any over-payments through normal student finance repayments, and to pause recoveries of overpaid grants until at least September".Some students faced having to find tens of thousands of pounds to repay, with the government saying it was up to the universities involved, and their franchise colleges, to make sure none suffered hardship....