Student Money Question

jackk_2

Hi all, i'm working out my weekly income so i can do a family budget, how long is my loan etc meant to last, i'm thinking it's 40 weeks, but i could be wrong :rotfl: .

Jackie x

Oldernotwiser

jackk wrote: »

Hi all, i'm working out my weekly income so i can do a family budget, how long is my loan etc meant to last, i'm thinking it's 40 weeks, but i could be wrong :rotfl: .

Jackie x

You say family so I assume you have children and are a lone parent. If that's the case then I believe that you can claim IS and other benefits during the summer vacation, although I'm not sure how many weeks that is exactly. If you don't get a quick and accurate reply here, I'd start by looking at https://www.direct.gov.uk

jackk_2

Hi Oldernotwiser, i'm not a lone parent, but OH is long term sick, so not earning. We are on IS with a long term sick premium at the moment + child tax credits. I'm not sure when i have to stop this because i'm not sure when my student money starts and stops. It's driving me slightly nutts lol, because i like to plan ahead and know what i will have each week or month, or don't have as the case may be, i'm not big on uncertainty.

I'll take a look at the link, thankyou.

Jackie x

cardiffforthefacup

The loan will cover you until June 30th, certain parts of the grant were supposed to last for 52 weeks but they keep changing grants so not sure if this is an old system grants. Don't know your rights as to IS however if you are a single parent from next year you can only claim if your child is under 7, otherwise you entitled to JSA, I suggest you contact your student finance office who will know exactly what your entitlements will be.

The_One_Who

I thought the student loan and grants were meant to last you the full 52 weeks, even though your last payment is just before the summer.

Helix

I thought it was 52 weeks as well, because they give you a bit more in the 3rd Payment to cover the Summer Holidays.

jackk_2

Right i phoned my student finance office, now i'm even more confused on how to arrange my weekly/monthly budget . Apparently loans are meant to last for the duration of the academic year, mine being 29/9/08 - 26/6/09 which is 40 weeks, whereas the grants are paid for a full year/ so have to last 52 weeks. The guy i was talking to said he knew nothing of the benefit rules, when you can get someone at the benefit places, none of them seem to know anything about student finance :mad: . All i want to know is how much i'll have each week/month to live on.

Cheers for the suggestions everyone

Jackie x

CLAPTON

Surely the issue here is : can you claim any benefits during the summer holiday..: whether the loan is 'meant ' to last 40 weeks or 52 is pretty acedemic.


For 'normal' students the situation is that they can't claim JSA during the summer holidays so they must budget for their loan to last 52 weeks unless they get a job in the summer.
For the last year of their studies they get a smaller loan but they can claim JSA from July onwards after their course is finished.

However for students with children, they can claim JSA over the summer holidays, however I don't really know about your specific circumstances as your other half is receiving IS.

So I would suggest to plan on having to live on the loan for all 52 weeks until you can find out whether or not in your particular circumstances you can get other state aid. Presumably you could get a summer vac job and earn money if you wanted to.

The benefits people should be able to help you or try the CAB.

Oldernotwiser

jackk wrote: »

Right i phoned my student finance office, now i'm even more confused on how to arrange my weekly/monthly budget . Apparently loans are meant to last for the duration of the academic year, mine being 29/9/08 - 26/6/09 which is 40 weeks, whereas the grants are paid for a full year/ so have to last 52 weeks. The guy i was talking to said he knew nothing of the benefit rules, when you can get someone at the benefit places, none of them seem to know anything about student finance :mad: . All i want to know is how much i'll have each week/month to live on.

Cheers for the suggestions everyone

Jackie x

Although the benefits agency may know little about student finance, they'll understand the effect of income on IS. If you divide your grant by 52 then that'll be your weekly income for the whole of the course and then divide your loan by 40 which will be weekly income for the academic year. You could then contact the benefits agency and say that you'll have x amount of weekly income from September to June (grant divided by 52 plus loan divided by 40) and for the other 12 weeks you'll have y amount of weekly income (grant divided by 52). They should then be able to tell you the effect that will have on your IS; after all, it's the same as if you were going to tell them you've got a contract job for 40 weeks, with a certain amount of income.

Do explain how you've arrived at this figure just in case I've missed anything but that should give you the estimate of income you're looking for. You're right to plan in advance when you're combining IS with student loans/grants as people do get into a muddle with the different amounts of money coming in at different times. Good luck.

Titch89

I think you have to exclude rent and council tax from what you say you live on. (if you pay either of them that is)

jackk_2

Just as an update, ive been to the benefits office today to tell them about the changes that are due to happen. The advisor said that my student finance needs to last us for the 40 weeks that the course runs, and that i can claim income support and housing benefit to live on during the summer break, so at least now i know what i have and will be able to draw up a budget soon.

Jackie x