~~>> Maintenance Grant or Special Support Grant? <<~~

pryia

hello all,

i'm just starting my 3rd year at uni and for the past two years i received maintenance grant but this year they gave me special support grant as i am a single mum.

i realised that the special support grant is not counted as an income when working out HB whereas the maintenance grant is!! if i calculated everything right i've lost over £8000 on this for the past two years. .

i am not sure if they made a mistake when working out what grant i was entitled to or if it was my mistake. if it was my mistake and i applied for the wrong grant, would i be able to do anything about it?

also, are students entitled to income support over the summer?

i've been struggling badly financially over the whole period of my study..

okay, thank you for your replies and best wishes

[Deleted User]

As a student parent, you are entitled to claim full HB and Income Support over the summer from 1st July for 9 weeks. This is because your student income only counts as income for 43 weeks of the year for benefits purposes.

It sounds like you should always have received the SSG. You can't have applied for the wrong grant, it must have been a mistake by the LEA/SLC. You should go to your Students' Union Advice Centre and get some help with this.

You can also apply to the Uni Access to Learning/Hardship fund, the Advice Centre should be able to help you with this too.

pryia

Thank you for your reply, Shivster.

I was advised by my friend who was in the same situation as me before i started studying that they wouldnt count her grant when working out HB. i made an enquiry twice, once each year and they just said that this is how it is and that they count everything as an income. nobody would suggest that there was another kind of a grant which is not counted..

studying could have been much more enjoyable had i known about all these money. i never claimed income support over the summer break as i was advised by someone that i was not entitled to it. also my uni made mistake twice and they took £1000 and then £700 out of my account for the course fees by mistake and i had to wait over two months for them to return it.

thank you again for your reply, i will get an advise!

best wishes,

pryia