confused about some tax, grant and loan info

JamesN

ok heres the story in short. im in the 2nd yr of my degree. its a 3 yr course. In september i plan to move in with a long term girlfriend as we live quite far away. I currently dont receive any support in the form of grants or busaries because my family income is over the boundary.

When i move in with my gf however, the income will be much lower and we will be relying on savings. she is not a student and so her income will go towards it too. she'll probably earn around 10k mark so we are definately below the lowest boundaries.

Will this entitle me to student bursaries, and what else should i apply for, to get help with costs?

i've spoken to the tax office but they were pretty unhelpful and said to speak to student loans.

My friend said you had to live on your own for 2 years which i find pretty ridiculous.

Oldernotwiser

JamesN wrote: »

ok heres the story in short. im in the 2nd yr of my degree. its a 3 yr course. In september i plan to move in with a long term girlfriend as we live quite far away. I currently dont receive any support in the form of grants or busaries because my family income is over the boundary.

When i move in with my gf however, the income will be much lower and we will be relying on savings. she is not a student and so her income will go towards it too. she'll probably earn around 10k mark so we are definately below the lowest boundaries.

Will this entitle me to student bursaries, and what else should i apply for, to get help with costs?

i've spoken to the tax office but they were pretty unhelpful and said to speak to student loans.

My friend said you had to live on your own for 2 years which i find pretty ridiculous.

I'm afraid that you can't achieve independent status during your course; if you hadn't been supporting yourself for 3 years before you began then you don't come into this category. Whether or not you live with your parents is irrelevant and living with a girlfriend s=doesn't change the way finances are assessed.

I don't understand why you say that your income will be much lower when you move in together. Presumably you keep yourself at the moment on your loan plus part time work and she does the same on her earnings. When you move in together you'll only need one place to live and will save all the costs for travelling in between.

Sorry if I've missed something.

JamesN

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

I'm afraid that you can't achieve independent status during your course; if you hadn't been supporting yourself for 3 years before you began then you don't come into this category. Whether or not you live with your parents is irrelevant and living with a girlfriend s=doesn't change the way finances are assessed.

I don't understand why you say that your income will be much lower when you move in together. Presumably you keep yourself at the moment on your loan plus part time work and she does the same on her earnings. When you move in together you'll only need one place to live and will save all the costs for travelling in between.

Sorry if I've missed something.

yeah, but i get classed on my parents income which combined is plus £80k. I dont see how it should be looked at if im living on my own as its nothing to do with them. Surely they should take into account the current income within the household i move into which would be more like £10k. Thus making me eligible for the full grant and some bursaries as opposed to the nothing i get now.

Oldernotwiser

JamesN wrote: »

yeah, but i get classed on my parents income which combined is plus £80k. I dont see how it should be looked at if im living on my own as its nothing to do with them. Surely they should take into account the current income within the household i move into which would be more like £10k. Thus making me eligible for the full grant and some bursaries as opposed to the nothing i get now.

I'm afraid that the way you look at it's irrelevant. You haven't supported yourself for 3 years prior to starting university and the fact that you're shacking up with your girlfriend now doesn't change anything.

You can't alter the situation just by wishing it were different!

whitfreak

It is one of the unfortunate things that moving out doesnt make you automatically classed as independent for loans/grant etc. You have to show three years of supporting yourself fully, i.e. no help from your parents, to be classed as independant. This causes genuin issues, but if it wasnt that way then there would be a rather large loophole for the well off.

However, if you were living at your parents home during term time you should have recieved a smaller loan than those in halls, digs etc. So by moving out you should inform the SLC that you want to be reassessed as you now live away from home. You don't get a huge amount more from memory but every little helps.