I don't understand my Financial Notification

Impet_Limpet

Can anyone shed any light on this. I think this amount of money is too much

Basic loan £3470
plus loan subject to income assessment £1398
Max loan available/loan requested/loan to be paid £4868

Then I get
Maintainence grant £0
Adult dependants grant £2575


That makes a total of £7443!!

That seems like quite alot of money to me!?


Circumstances are

B/F on Contribution based JSA since October, I am paid £2200 p/a by my employer when I am attending uni (counts as unearned income) but earn £14000 by working full time too which is disregarded apparently!?
Joint income last financial year was approx £31000 (including my F/T wage). LEA said both sets of circumstances are considered in the assessment.

I'm confused as this seems an odd amount and doesn't seem to tally with any of the student finance booklets/leaflets? I was expecting more like £3500 in total?

TDQO

Hmmm the best thing would be to call them and ask them to explain it. The last thing you want is them realising a msitake a year down the line and demanding the money back!

However, if you are eligible for the GRANT then take it as this does NOT have to be paid back. You could even reduce your loan amount by the amount of the grant so you get the cash for free instead of having a loan to pay back.

Oldernotwiser

You are obviously in a very unusual financial situation, combining working full time with being a full time student as well as having an adult dependant but no children. It does seem high to me but when you look at the figures in detail it also seems possible, if rather unlikely. I wonder whether you applied for the maintenance grant as well?

One thing to bear in mind is that your partner's contributions based JSA will only last for 6 months and he's unlikely to get means tested JSA on the figures you've provided.

Impet_Limpet

Thanks for the replies.

I'll probably bang the lot in a savings account in the hope to get some interest (although not much now the ISA has dropped to 3%) and then if we become desperate we'll have to pay some mortgage repayments (this redundancy thing sucks!), and if they need it back it should be there especially the grant

It was odd as I applied for maintainence grant (but it doesn't appear that I am eligible from this notification, although I thought we would be for a partial with a joint income of £30K ish last year?), but I didn't apply for the Adult dependants grant, it appears this has been amended by the LEA after I sent proof of income in and they realised he was on JSA fom October.

I'm definitely going to call as soon as possible (I haven't been paid yet) just to check as it seems an outrageous amount of money!

Maybe if I did have children it would be simplier!!

Impet_Limpet

I got a reply today, I thought I'd include it for interest.

"Hi Martine, you qualify for an extra "long courses loan" of £243 due to the course being over 30 weeks long. As you attended a previous course for two years, you are not entitled to a tuition fee loan for the first year of your new course or a maintenance grant, however you will qualify next year for these. You are right the adult dependents grant is only payable whilst your partner is unemployed. I hope this helps. Frank"

I didn't require tuition fees anyway as they are paid already. I also discovered adult dependants grant is paid ON TOP of the student maintainence loan hence the amount seeming high.

Fingers crossed my b/f will have a job soon - I'd much rather that, than the adult dependants grant!!

scat

You may still end up with both even if he gets a job. I get Adult Dependents Allowance as most of my partners income is disregarded - they take off rent, council tax, loans etc before assessing it. Family credit disregarded most of my grants as well! Anyone with a family and in debt would be well advised to work and do a higher level college course! You may end up utterly frazzled but the financial rewards are great!