NHS Bursary and Student Loan

rolodam

My daughter is about to undertake a 4 year degree for which the tuition fees are paid by the NHS...great! However, I am now aware that because the coures is eligible for the bursary the cost of living loan is a reduced by 50%(non means tested). The Bursary was only £575 together with the reduced student loan £2265 comes to £2840. So while its good news that my daughter will not be building up tuition fee loans the fact is that we have not got access to funds via student loans to cover her accommodation cost appro £4000, let alone food etc. I have checked the situation with both the NHS and Local Council and it appears to be the policy..although this was never made clear to me by either party . Have I missed something here or do all the NHS bursary students have to fund the extra £3000 odd a year from other sources as they do not have access to the full loan?

Oldernotwiser

NHS bursaries are fully assessed on parental income and parents whose income is high enough are expected to contribute. I assume that your household income is too high for your daughter to receive more. You can find all the information on www.nhspa.gov.uk

rolodam

Yes I understand that the NHS bursary is means tested, however because the course is eligble for a bursary (regardless whether you want it or not, or if you are assessed as eligible for full or part award) you only have access to the reduced student loan for maintenance which is woefully short of actual costs. My daughter does not want a higher bursary just access to a the full student loan. My understanding is that normally there would be a maintenance grant (means tested) and then the maximun loan you would be eligble for would be offset by this amount.

Oldernotwiser

rolodam wrote: »

Yes I understand that the NHS bursary is means tested, however because the course is eligble for a bursary (regardless whether you want it or not, or if you are assessed as eligible for full or part award) you only have access to the reduced student loan for maintenance which is woefully short of actual costs. My daughter does not want a higher bursary just access to a the full student loan. My understanding is that normally there would be a maintenance grant (means tested) and then the maximun loan you would be eligble for would be offset by this amount.

If your daughter wants to be eligible for a full student loan then she ought to have applied for the Diploma or Advanced Diploma course. Many students choose to do this for financial reasons.

TB26

My son has just received the NHS bursary notification today - I, like you, am absolutely stunned. Had he been doing an 'ordinary' degree (nothing to do with the NHS) he would have been awarded around £3700 student loan, plus a loan to pay any tuition fees, plus a maintenance grant of around £1000, assessed on my salary. However, because this is an NHS course he recieves £2265 student loan, £1500 bursary and I am somehow expected to contribute £2000. I also tried to speak to both the student finance company and the bursary people (who I found quite rude on the whole!). I tried to make them see that they barely awarded enough money to cover his accommodation, let alone anything else. For the life of me, I can't see how when I am income assessed by the student loan company, he would get a maintenance grant, yet with the NHS I have to pay £2000. They said they would get someone to ring me back in the next 24 hours. I did try speaking to the student loans people and asked if he could not use the bursary (since this would be financially much better), but alas no. I'm honestly not sure what to do now - I had assumed the bursary system would provide similar support to the student loan system. What are you going to do?

TB26

Sorry - last post a bit rambling!

Effectively, this is due to differences in how your financial situation is assessed. The student loan/grant system has a completely different income structure to decide how much parents contribute. A much higher income is needed before you have to contribute a sizeable amount. However, the NHS bursary system is different - a much lower income triggers the parental contribution to be relatively high.

It would appear that students and their parents are penalized heavily for doing an NHS related degree. Funny how at interviews the NHS bursary was presented as a positive!?

rolodam

I agree, the process is far from transparent. We went along to a few Uni briefings and they presented the positive aspects of tuition fees being paid and being eligible to be assessed for an NHS bursary. The fact that you would automatically have the student loan facility reduced by 50% was never mentioned. Equally I went to LEA finance briefings at my daughter's school. I specifically asked for clarification of how the funding process worked for courses where NHS pays foe tuition fees but was just told to fill in the PN1 as normal. If you look at the PN1 it requests that you declare if you are applying for a NHS bursary. A note here to state the implications for Student loans would have been helpful and also to advise that you need not supply financial details as the reduced loan is not means tested! I will continue to press for some rationale for this policy which should be much clearer to enable prospective students to make informed choices.

SavvyStudent_2

Hello! I'm a final year medical student - I've been awarded a flat £2400ish to live in London on this year (non-means tested loan). Apparently my parents have earnt over the threshold this year (which must be very small as we're pretty broke!) so they're expected to stump up the rest of the money. Nightmare!

Swirlywurly

I am in a similar position going into my fifth year of medicine. The money I have been allocated is the highest amount available by the NHS and my LEA and it still only just covers my rent.

I have no idea what I am meant to do, and my even have to consider taking a year out to work in order to save some more money. My parents cannot support me and I have worked for my first four years of university, and I will continue to do so, however it is impossible to predict where that extra money will come from.

We are choosing to work in the NHS, and this is what we get. I would rather opt out of the bursary and continue as I have been, I'd have more to pay back but at least I would be able to survive. I am not expecting to live in luxury but the amount I have been offered is pitiful. I wonder how students without parental contributions have survived before.

SavvyStudent_2

Hi swirlywurly - I'm in exactly the same position! I just find the whole thing beyond belief really. Even if I HAD got the max NHS funding this year in addition to my 50% loan, it still wouldn't cover the rent. I just don't get how we're expected to live on nothing! It's hard to hold down a job at this stage as I don't know about you but I'm on placements all over the south east so not really in the one place for very long!

Swirlywurly

SavvyStudent wrote: »

Hi swirlywurly - I'm in exactly the same position! I just find the whole thing beyond belief really. Even if I HAD got the max NHS funding this year in addition to my 50% loan, it still wouldn't cover the rent. I just don't get how we're expected to live on nothing! It's hard to hold down a job at this stage as I don't know about you but I'm on placements all over the south east so not really in the one place for very long!

Feeling your pain. They should have made this much clearer when we started medical school (or any type of healthcare course requiring a bursary) its ridiculous. We don't have an opt out clause so we are stuck with this. :mad: