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BlondieE

Is there not a legal obligation for parents to fund their childs university accomodation etc if they are on good salaries. Although her parents are divorced is there not some way she can get money from them?

anewman

BlondieE wrote:

Is there not a legal obligation for parents to fund their childs university accomodation etc if they are on good salaries. Although her parents are divorced is there not some way she can get money from them?

I think I had to send a divorce certificate thingy with my application. In my case there was no contact with my father in many years. But if there is still contact, why should one parent refuse when it's in the best interests of their child and they can afford it? It's just pure greediness, selfishness, and ignorance of their own child's future and they should be ashamed.

Only legal obligation as I understand it is you make an application for funding, if it's found your parents earn above a certain amount they are expected to pay and that's it unfortunately.

I'd look into trying to get the parent who there is least contact with earnings disregarded (divorce cert), but if they have already looked at that parent's earnings it may be difficult to convince them they cannot be financially responsible.

Ollieda

Ms_Chocaholic wrote:

My son is starting Uni this month and wonder if you knew how the three payments of his maintenance loan are split ... we are aware these are paid September, early 2007 and just after Easter but do they pay three equal amounts.

You shoould have got a letter from either your LEA or the SLC by now saying when you will get paid and how much each time. If you havn't got it try phoneing them.

If you do phone them make sure you have your security details on hand. You should of got a coded secret password through the post which you could then change online. I never got this and when I phoned up the lady on the other end asked for my 1st and 8th character of my secret password and I had no idea. She then told me that I must have got a letter because I have apparently logged in and changed it to "What is the surname of my childhood hero" - which is conveniet....especially as I didn't have a childhood hero!

sheashea1

SamMoffatt28 wrote:

Hi, I wonder if you could advise me please?

I am almost 30, married with 4 children. Starting a social work degree in september. Hubby earns approx £20000 p/a. I get child tax credit and child benefit for the children (do I have to declare these as earnings?). I know I am entitled to a GSCC bursary & tuition fees paid also by them. I was wondering if I am supposed to apply for income assessed or non income assessed student finance? Obviously I wont be applying for a tuition fees loan.
Also, if I get the GSCC bursary will I still be entitled to claim other bursaries such as maintenance grant + scholarship bursary offered by my uni or do I have to choose which one I want?

Sorry if this seems complicated I don't seem to be getting the answers from my LEA!

Thanks in advance, Sam x

Hi,

Declare everything. when you filled in the student loan form there was the last bit I think section 13 about bursaries, if you filled this in then you will be assessed, assuming you applied for the maintenance grant which is max. of £2700. If you get this then uni will have to add at least 300 which you get in installments in march and May. The bursary could be more than 300 upto 1000. It works on a sliding scale dependant on household income. i THINK most unis offer ALF (access to learning fund) money given to those who apply, if you apply early you should get something those with kids are in the priority. I think you would be better off going for income assessed as you do not have that much income (don't mean to be rude) you should be entitled quite a few things. Can I be nosy and ask how you can afford not to take the tuition fee loan?
Hope someting helped?

BlondieE

anewman,

Thanks for that - I totally agree. One parent lives abroad but rents house here the other lives here and said would pay part but not ex's part. Girl needs parents divorce cert but both refused. Parents like this should not get away without paying!

bubble96

hi there, does anyone know whether it is possible for me to get a student loan to study through the open university. i've just moved in with my boyfriend, which has caused the total wages to go up, therefor im not entitled to any financial help, but on my wages i cant afford to pay the fees.

AddieH

bubble96 wrote:

hi there, does anyone know whether it is possible for me to get a student loan to study through the open university. i've just moved in with my boyfriend, which has caused the total wages to go up, therefor im not entitled to any financial help, but on my wages i cant afford to pay the fees.

As pretty much all of the courses at the OU are part-time you will not be eligible for a loan from the Student Loans Company. OU have a number of support options available though http://www3.open.ac.uk/courses/about/p6_1.shtml .

System

My daughter is abroad this year in China, she left on 27th August. A letter from SLC arrived yesterday advising her of her loan and saying it was conditional upon her presenting it at registration in Newcastle upon Tyne. She is already in Beijing!!

SLC won't talk to us and our local education board aren't interested even though she provided a letter from the uni confirming the study abroad and she also told them in person several times that she would be nowhere near Newcastle before she flew to Beijing. We live in N Ireland.

Can you tell us how to ensure she gets her loan through ok? The same thing has also happened to her best friend who is out there too with her.

AddieH

Would suggest you contact the student registry office at the university to see what they advise, or her course tutors at the university to find out if others have been in the same situation.

Savvy_Sue

BlondieE wrote:

Is there not a legal obligation for parents to fund their childs university accomodation etc if they are on good salaries. Although her parents are divorced is there not some way she can get money from them?

There isn't, AFAIK, a legal obligation on parents to pay, and never has been - I was at Uni in the days of means-tested grants and didn't get my parental contribution! However, I am sure that last year someone took one parent to court for continued maintenance while they were at Uni.

Again, AFAIK it is possible to fill out the loan forms without giving details of parental income. But as my son is on the 'old' system I don't know what this means in relation to what you get. Last year he got pretty much the full loan, but no tuition fees. So this year he's (finally!) done his application without giving our income. I thought - and it's only what I thought! - that now the fees are increased, they could be borrowed along with the loan for living costs.

It does seem very petty that neither parent will give a copy of the divorce certificate. I'd want to knock their heads together!