The SLC are sending out nothing but lies.
I sent my application in April and it still isn't ready to pay me at the start of my course in just over 1 week.
Many who need their full means tested loans for things such as accomodation costs have only been given the basic non-means tested loans.
It is very common to have to send forms 3 or 4 times even when they have been sent by recorded delivery.
Their website is pointless - you can't change any part of your application on it (apart from your bank detail oddly enough). So all those who changed university because of their results had to send in paper forms.
Many of said forms sent on results day haven't been processed yet meaning that the SLC still thinks they're going to their original university.
Their fancy new scanners broke very early on meaning post had to be redirected up to Glasgow from Darlington.
These experiences all come from first hand experiences of me and my friends.
OH and if any of you are wondering i'm meant to be doing an MCOMP in Computer Science for 5 years at Bath. Although, guess what, the SLC messed up scanning in my form and instead have me down as doing an MMath in Computer Science for 4 years.
Their website has been unable to cope so they removed two of the most useful areas - view correspondence let you see which letters were winding their way to you and view evidence which let you see what evidence they had received and/or needed. Now everyone who needs to know these things instead have to clog up the phone lines leading to not even getting put in a queue. If you do get put in a queue you are on hold for 2 hours. Every time you ring you are told something different.
Finally, I do wonder why this supposedly devolution-loving government decided to instead centralise this process. Applying through LEA's (as in the old system) meant if there was a problem you could hop on a bus and see someone actually handling your application face-to-face. I'm envious of the returning students who are still under that system.