Not entitled to...

currynchips

Rang the LEA, have been re-assessed following P45/60 evidence, it has been processed and shall hear in writing within 7 days. I'll post here if I can find the thread then!

bestpud

currynchips wrote: »

Rang the LEA, have been re-assessed following P45/60 evidence, it has been processed and shall hear in writing within 7 days. I'll post here if I can find the thread then!

It is often easier to find older threads via your User CP.

clk299

the £2.5k was the standard loan when nothing else was available. Half of which went on fees.

This is not the case. The £2.5k (actually was about £2750 IIRC) was the non-means-tested part of the student loan which amounted to 75% of the total available. It was a maintenance loan only and NOT designed to pay for tuition fees. Tuition fees and the other 25% of the maintenance loan were means tested to your parents' income if you were under 25 and not an independent student. The expectation, rightly or wrongly, was that your parents would fund the shortfall as based on their income they had the means to do so (on paper; I don't agree a parent should HAVE to fund their child post-18 but there we are).

Those of us who went through this system and were means tested to receive the minimum, like myself, generally went and got a job to pay their fees... I certainly did.

You're lucky to be getting funding. For my second, government funded degree, I got the grand total of £1400 in total for a 45 week year for my last year, because there was no non-means-tested element at all and I actually ended up living rent free with a kind friend because I was to all intents and purposes, homeless. Good luck with applications- at least if you are not on a full year course (30 weeks) then you have all the rest of the year to work and save like mad!

currynchips

clk299 wrote: »

This is not the case. The £2.5k (actually was about £2750 IIRC) was the non-means-tested part of the student loan which amounted to 75% of the total available. It was a maintenance loan only and NOT designed to pay for tuition fees.

What you are saying is students now get help to pay tuition fees, whereas when they were £1k students got no help for it?

Those of us who went through this system and were means tested to receive the minimum, like myself, generally went and got a job to pay their fees... I certainly did.

Er, yes. I already have 1 job set up and am in conversations regarding a second.

You're lucky to be getting funding. For my second, government funded degree, I got the grand total of £1400 in total for a 45 week year for my last year, because there was no non-means-tested element at all and I actually ended up living rent free with a kind friend because I was to all intents and purposes, homeless. Good luck with applications- at least if you are not on a full year course (30 weeks) then you have all the rest of the year to work and save like mad!

Lucky? In some respects yes, but so far all I'm getting is a cheap rate loan. No free money. I am on a full time course, and will be grafting every other hour I have to make sure this works.

Thanks for replying anyway, every little helps!

Oldernotwiser

clk229 is quite right, on the earlier system there was no financial help to pay for fees and the assumption was that parents would pay . When fee loans were introduced the responsibility for paying them moved to the student him/herself on the assumption that they would be the beneficiaries financially of getting a degree.

I have to say, on the even older system that existed when there were grants (showing my age here!), if someone dropped out of a course after a term or a year there was NO guarantee of any further funding AT ALL. After dropping out of a course after 2 terms I was told that I had to fund the first year of any other degree totally and then, when I had successfully finished the first year, they might (only might) consider funding the remaining 2 years! So yes, in many ways you are lucky.

currynchips

Got a further £1560 in maintenance loans following proof of 3+ years independence. Total of just over £5000 for the year. I am happier, although this is all repaid, no grants for me.

Oldernotwiser

currynchips wrote: »

Got a further £1560 in maintenance loans following proof of 3+ years independence. Total of just over £5000 for the year. I am happier, although this is all repaid, no grants for me.

I'm glad you got this sorted out. Have they said why you're ineligible for the grant as well?

currynchips

Not explicitly. The only reason I've been given for anything is the previous study, so presumably this discounts both tuition fee loan and grants.

bestpud

When the fees were 1k, students could get them paid be the LEA if their income was low enough and there was no loan for those who were above the threshold and had to pay it. Now, everyone has to pay the full fee themselves, or with the tuition fee loan. The only grants on the new system are for living/studying costs.

You should be able to apply for the maintenance grant for the years you are not self-funding. You can get some of it with a household income up to £60kish I believe.

Obviously, in your case, it would just be your income they count as you have been classed as independent, and they don't count the students part time earnings (or they didn't on the old system anyway) so you'd get full support as far as I am aware. Maybe double check that still applies though.

Oldernotwiser

As you've had funding for 3 of the available 4 years, I would expect you to get the maintenance grant for the year in which you get the fee loan, but not the others. I don't know whether that would be the first or second year but it should definitely be one of them.