compelling personal reasons for student funding h...

[cherries23]

Help needed!

I left my course after 1 year and a half years due to my mothers and fathers seperation and the subsequent depression of my mother.

Unfortunately i just left the course due to severe upset caused and had to take on the role of carer for my mother and look after myself too whilst dealing with the messy break up of my parents.

I unfortunately don't have any evidence proving this and my parents have since got back together

student finance england are asking for some documentation/evidence of why i left and due to the above reasons i don't have any.

I really don't know what to do as i desperately now want to go to uni to go into teaching (english and media studies) and then pgce or gtp after.

I sent a brief letter and now there requesting to know more details,

If i get desperate i would be using my student loan to pay my tuition fee's and then work whilst studying but this is not really the ideal option!

Does anybody have any ideas what they will say or what i can do

many thanks.

[Lokolo]

If your mother was severely depressed she should surely have a doctors note of some sort?

[dmg24]

Why is working whilst studying not an ideal option? That is what most people do.

Is your GP aware of your earlier problems?

[cherries23]

she didn't seek help outside of the home we dealt with ourselves but i couldn't carry on studying knowing my auntie was caring soley for my mom i just needed to be at home, so i left.

work wise i have no issue working i did last time i was at uni but most people have there loan then work as added extra money , in my situation i would have to work to live for food rent etc etc when usually thats what the loan is for but i would be using my loan to pay my tuition fee's which would be added pressure. It would be possible and i want to do this course badly so i will do anything but if i can get tuition fee's then that would my make my life a bit easier and less stressful.

GP does not know what happened .

[cherries23]

i am worried that my uni course will suffer as i will be spending so much time working and not being able to concentrate as much as i would like to on my studies which may effect my degree.

[anniecave]

can your mum write them a letter confirming that she split with your father on date x and that you were caring for her? She can state that subsequently on date y they got back together

Can your father also write a letter confirming he left on x date and came back on y date?

And can your auntie also write to confirm?

(embarrasing perhaps for your parents to write but surely they will understand... !). And good to know they are back together!

[Lokolo]

Originally Posted by anniecave

can your mum write them a letter confirming that she split with your father on date x and that you were caring for her? She can state that subsequently on date y they got back together

Can your father also write a letter confirming he left on x date and came back on y date?

And can your auntie also write to confirm?

(embarrasing perhaps for your parents to write but surely they will understand... !). And good to know they are back together!

Although I can see why you could try that I can't see it working. I suspect SLC will want to see professional advice as to why the OP would not be able to attend university.

---

OP, you would only lose out on 1 years funding, so if you can save up for this you can get funding for the rest of the years of your course.

[cherries23]

would it only be a years funding i would lose? I can completely cope with that as the first year isn't as important as the last 2 so i could cope with working longer hours through that and then getting the funding for the second and third year.

Does having half a years funding not count then... as i thought i would lose out on 2 years funding??!?

and yes i am getting my parents to write letters its the best thing i can do really as i don't have any other options, kinda why i came on here to see if anyone had any advice etc on what else i could do.

thanks guys for your help so far

[Taiko]

You'll be restricted support in the first year, as it's length of course +1 - the 2 years you were previously in attendance.

From experience, I have accepted letters from family members involved as evidence of CPR before, however I'll always ask more questions if I need to.

[Paris Anthony]

If it's any help, my Mam's a HCP and her husband, my stepfather is also HCP psychiactric nurse... If I need to for certain reasons they are able to write as a HCP, particularly as neither of them share my last name. Have you got any family friends who happen to be HCP registered? If so, see if they would be willing to write, that normally carries some weight even if they leave out the fact that you're not actually a patient of theirs.

I would just like to point out this is not encouragemant not to seek prescribed medical advice when necessary, but merely an alternative if you happento be in this situation and for whatever reason seeing your GP or getting a referral to another HCP is impossible.
(Thought I'd cover my back!) :-D

[Oldernotwiser]

I hope that you can manage without help for the first year because, without anything than your parents word for it, I can see no reason why this would be accepted. If this were the case, everybody would be able to use this sort of thing as an excuse.

What about proof that your father wasn't living in the household? He must have a tenancy agreement elsewhere or have been paying CT somewhere else? Presumably your mother left her job when she was ill - did she claim benefits?

[salesadmin]

To add another slant on this I was in a similar situation. I dropped out of uni in my first year and decided to go back. I was asked for "compelling personal reasons" but my reasons were that the course and distance from my family just didn't work for me. This is what I told them in my letter and I was granted funding for my new 3 year course. I would ring them and explain then ask specifically what it is that they want.

As suggested above a letter from your Mum may help.

[Oldernotwiser]

Originally Posted by salesadmin

To add another slant on this I was in a similar situation. I dropped out of uni in my first year and decided to go back. I was asked for "compelling personal reasons" but my reasons were that the course and distance from my family just didn't work for me. This is what I told them in my letter and I was granted funding for my new 3 year course. I would ring them and explain then ask specifically what it is that they want.

As suggested above a letter from your Mum may help.

This situation isn't the same. Everybody's allowed the length of their course plus one year - no extenuating circumstancesa are required. The OP dropped out after a year and a half.