A tale of woe! and some questions about funding

starsinmycrown

I didn't know where to put this, because we have so many issues with money, but they mainly pertain to university so i may as well write them here...

Today we had a bit of a wake up and smell the coffee day, and it was not good....

Our situation is this, i'm 26, my partner is 33 and 18 months ago we decided to go to university together. i'm doing psychiatric nursing and he's doing computer programming. At the moment, i live at home in the midlands and he lives in london- he was down there for work. six months ago or so we both had jobs and the prospect of going up to nottingham was a fairly easy one.

Now we lost our jobs. And are saddled with 300 quid of debt repayments a month between us, and are both getting 240 a month jsa between us. So are living on credit/oh's redundancy payout which was a month and a half's salary. OH has to pay 160 a month on his loan and both of us have debts totalling around 9k. and no income....

on top of this, we've found out that oh will get no tuition fee loan so we have to find 3000 to pay fees with! :eek:

we used to be okay for money now we are on the bones of our !!!!.

Today, we did a microsoft money calculation and on the 10th of june, we run out of cash- i.e OH can't pay his loan. we worked out today OH is LOSING 300 a month at the current rate. Hes only got until september to go on it and at the last hurdle we've totally fallen and can't even live on this money letalone repay our debts or save up. We are so worried.

i owe 1500 on credit cards split three ways and i've not been able to find a lump sum to pay them off. so i'm paying 120 quid roughly in this and o/d payments. i've managed to lower my o/d payment to £20 a month, and it runs out in sept, but i still have these horrible high interest credit cards hanging over me. half of my jsa goes on DDs, and i have about 100 a month to live off. OH is living off his redundancy money and supplementing it with jsa.

we CANNOT cut down any more than we have, believe me. we don't go out, we only see each other every 2, 3 weeks, we don't eat out, we download movies, we don't even get haircuts or buy clothes!

today, i was wondering if CCCS would be an option for us, but will it damage our credit rating? mine is already shot after years of low income, but OHs is good.

next question...

re: next year...

i will get a 6k bursary from the nhs and oh will get a mnaintenance loan. we have worked out that we will have 9k to live off. Will i get anything else? like a maintenance grant? everything we read is very vague, and we DO need to know asap.

OH went to uni in 1991 for 2 years and loathed it because he was forced into it by parents and teachers- hence he only has 2 years of student finance left. he's worked hard at his access to HE course and recently has been getting 100% in his maths and physics so we don't want all this work to go to waste and are desperate to go to uni and have places. OH worked in construction so we arent counting on employment materialising any time soon as there are a real dearth of jobs and theres so much competition. we would like to know how much we are likely to get, with us both having no income and me being a nursing student and him already claiming two years of student finance. Is there anything else we can apply for? we worked out that the bursary and the maintenance grant are are only certainties. what is our likelihood of getting anymore grants, loans, hardship, etc?

Any ideas you can give us to help us out of this hole we have fallen into would be gratefully taken. x

Oldernotwiser

Will you be studying for a degree or for the Diploma/Advanced Diploma as the funding is different?

You will definitely pay no council tax, but you can, of course, work part time while you're studying.

Also, is there no care work where you live? This would be relevant experience for you and bring in some money.

starsinmycrown

Hi, i'll be signing on for the diploma but hope to do the BSc, at notts you sign on for the diploma and if you're good enough, you carry on to bsc, so at the moment it makes little difference to us. i should get in my third year enough loans and grants to cover us okay, but its our first year at uni that should be a struggle as Oh has already claimed one lot of grants loans (you're allowed four years in total right?) and the LA has told him that it has to be the first year that we go without.

We're finding it hard to budget for next year because i every calculator we use or every helpline we call says you "may" get X Y Z... but as we have absolutely no income, does that mean we'll be entitled to it, as i don't see why not. I don't know if the bursary is the only thing i'll get. on directgov. it suggested that i may get 2400 maintenance grant whilst studying for nursing, but at the university they say this is unlikely- i'm being told two different things. i havent had an interview invite yet, so i guess i'll have to wait ages before i'm offered a place, hence i can't send any assessment forms off.

Oldernotwiser

If you'd been in this situation last year you would expect to get £6,531 bursary and a dependants allowance of £2,181 for your husband. These are the figures for the Diploma course and this will change if you transfer to the degree. The Dependants Allowance will be assessed on your husband's income, but if he only has a Maintenance Loan I think you will get it.

You can find all the information on www.nhsstudentgrants.co.uk

As far as your debts are concerned, I'd post this on the DFW Board as they have more expertise there.

Fire_Fox

Are you both full time or part time students now? Why do you have the equivalent of one JSA payment between you? Do you have any student bank accounts? Are you claiming any other benefits? Why have you only just found out your OH is not entitled to a student loan? Have you applied to Uni for any kind of hardship support?

Oldernotwiser

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Are you both full time or part time students now? Why do you have the equivalent of one JSA payment between you? Do you have any student bank accounts? Are you claiming any other benefits? Why have you only just found out your OH is not entitled to a student loan? Have you applied to Uni for any kind of hardship support?

I may be wrong but I think they're hoping to start later this year.

starsinmycrown

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Are you both full time or part time students now? Why do you have the equivalent of one JSA payment between you? Do you have any student bank accounts? Are you claiming any other benefits? Why have you only just found out your OH is not entitled to a student loan? Have you applied to Uni for any kind of hardship support?

sorry, probably didn't clarify...

last year we were okay for money and oh was working in london- planned to save up cash etc etc, decided to go uni, but OH had to get 70% in maths and physics HE course to get into his uni course so we hope to go this year- i.e oct 09. OH was earning a good wage so we figured after december, we could pay off his personal loan- the big financial drain, get my credit cards gone, then save this 3k, before october- feasible.

then without warning OH lost his job, had been there less than 18 months so got no payout, although his company were good enough to slip him two months wages as goodwill. My temp contract ran out- i havent been able to find a job, so come january both of us ( i moved in with mum, oh is in a small flat in london) are on jsa, i.e £60 a week. his redundancy wages have been paying the excess on our debts- as i say we pay around £340 between us, although between us we get 240 a month each jsa. so as you can see, we realy are struggling here. We've been together 3 years so in a relationship sense we kind of count our money as "us", although obviously we don't "share" an account or anything.

now until recently mature students got fees paid- we checked this out, and not any more, so now, our plan to save 3k before october isn't gonna happen. we worked out that oh cant repay his loan from the start of june. thats when e're going to be in real trouble. We plan to move to nottingham to start our uni courses, but at the moment, the tuition fees are proving a nightmare. when OH rang the LA up in december they told him he had two years of finance available to him at uni, but this could ONLY be used for years 2 and 3, not one. (although what difference this makes to them i don't know!"

OHs deposit can pay our first few months of rent in notts, if we need, and his contract runs out in june, so we may need to move then to notts. our concern is we don't know if we even CAN afford to live or where we stand financially as we can get no indication, except my nhs bursary of 6k. every helpline we ring says "you wont know until both of you get a full assessment". which hardly helps us budget.
was just wondering what anybody thinks we may be entitled to in this situation, from either knowledge or personal experience of our situtation. obviously oh will have to be asessessed as a single person (he's applying now) and so will i, because i've read the SLC will only assess you in your current state- thus we cant say "well in a few months time we will be living together and neithr of us will have an income" were finding the whole thing a bit worrying.

Oldernotwiser

From what you've said, I can't see that you'd be eligible for anything other than the £8,700 ish you've quoted above. Your partner would be eligible for the Maintenance Loan but not the Maintenance Grant which should give you a combined income of nearly £13,000 plus your part time earnings.

3nicky1

i have no advice - im in lots of trouble myself just wanted to say hello to a fellow soon to be mental health nurse(I qualify sept 09 if i can manage my debts till then).