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Student grant firm axed over delays
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Liberata, the contractor responsible for delivering student grants has been axed, the Learning and Skills Council announced.
The LSC said it was "discontinuing its contract" and that Capita will take over from November 28.
Liberata was responsible for the Educational Maintenance Allowance, a payment for teenagers from poorer backgrounds to help them to stay in education after the age of 16.
Up to 150,000 students had their educational maintenance allowance (EMA) delayed due to computer glitches and problems with Liberata's telephone helpline.
In a statement, the LSC said it had appointed Capita to take over a full range of services, including the EMA and the Adult Learning Grant (ALG).
The statement said: "Learners have suffered weeks of delay in receiving payments as a result of Liberata encountering technical difficulties in processing EMA applications. The focus of the LSC and Liberata throughout this period was to ensure that all possible steps were taken to overcome these delays.
"At one stage the backlog of applications was in excess of 200,000. Liberata has worked to reduce this backlog to below 12,000 and the remaining applications are expected to be cleared within the next few weeks.
"Despite this progress, the LSC's view is that a change of supplier is the best way forward.
"The LSC has been in talks with Liberata about the future of the contract for the past four weeks and has decided to move the contract to another supplier. We can now announce that the Learner and Learning Provider helplines, processing and payments service will transfer from Liberata to Capita on 28 November.
"With effect from that date, Capita will bring in a new senior management team to oversee the staff and operations in Coventry, Manchester and Darlington processing centres. We would like to reassure learners that payments will continue and that, during the transfer period, outstanding applications will continue to be processed."
