Please be patient is the plea from Essex County Council to students who have applied for a student loan and help towards tuition fees.

Because of Government difficulties in the supply of essential information systems needed to process claims, there are delays of two weeks or more in keeping applicants in touch.

In the original timetable, published by the Department for Education and Employment, students in Essex who applied in March should have received details of financial assistance towards the cost of their courses in higher education during the next few days.

However, county council awards staff are asking students who have applied for assistance to be patient a little longer as the new computer software has only just arrived.

Once essential testing of software is complete, letter printing should start next week to be dispatched this month. This applies to those students in higher education who began in September 1998, as well as those starting courses after the summer break.

Additional awards and benefits staff are being recruited to ensure that all applications can be dealt with as quickly as possible.

Jenny Jewell, manager of the service, said: "We very much appreciate the importance for students of having a loan cheque at the start of the autumn term, but we would be grateful if those affected do not contact us at the moment.

Their telephone calls would only distract us from the essential task of reading their forms and making decisions.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.