Help With Student Loans - HERE!

glassishalffull

Hi, I hope someone can help with my query, and firstly apologies if it's already been asked/answered elsewhere.

I applied for and received my Maintenance Loan and Maintenance Grant (and I'm grateful!). But I have since realised that I should have claimed the SSG instead of the maintenance grant, so I've submitted a Change of Circumstances form along with my evidence to Student Finance England.

Is this the best way to advise them? Do you think I will receive a reply before the start of the course (the girl I spoke to by phone at Student Finance just laughed when I asked!). If I am eligible for SSG, will this automatically increase my Maintenance Loan?

Also, am I likely to miss out on any grants from my University, since they allocate the monies from the information from Student Finance and mine is currently incorrect...?

Many thanks!

pjcox2005

Hi, hopefully a simple question that someone can help with.

Taking into account future interest, my final payment on my student loan taken out in 1999 will be paid March 2011 (a fair few to go). Conveniently it falls at the end of the tax year so I assumed it would resolve quite quickly and no further payments (or at least minimal payments) would be taken by mistake.

However, hearing other comments it suggests that quite often a lack of communication makes these payments slow to stop and slow to reclaim back.

Q - Is there anything I can do now to ensure that this won't happen when my last payment is made?

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated, likewise if this doesn't actually tend to be an issue then feel free to say.

Thanks

rapunzelz86

mitch76 wrote: »

Hi there - I'm new to this and have spent the last2 hours reading through posts to find someone in a similar situation to mine but to no avail........

I am a mature - 30 something - woman who is (hopefully) starting uni in Sept as an undergrad on a 3 yr BA and then hoping to do a PGCE afterwards.

My hubby is long term sick and he claims IS for both of us as I currently do not work as I am a carer for our daughter who has special needs. The claim is in his name, not mine.As part of the IS we receive some help towards the mortgage; without this help we wouldn't be able to make the payment to keep mortgage company happy.

We receive CB for our 3 children and CTC.

My question is (because student finance keep asking me for more info and I haven't heard what I will recieve yet etc) - how will income from Student finance affect the income support we receive? I have had so many differing answers from so many people and I am really confused and worried now.:o Some tell me it won't be effected and some say that we will get nothing. Obviously with hubby being unable to work and this being our only income at present, the effect any student finance has on our benefits will be a deciding factor as to whether I take my place at Uni or not......

Many Thanks for any help/advise, in advance...
Mitch
xxx

Im no expert by far, but i would imagine your husband would still be able to claim income support for himself, but not for you.Child benefit and child tax credit would remain the same.
However, even though you would lose the income support for yourself, the money you recieve from loans/grants far outweigh this. You will get installments of your loan and grants every 3 months, probably far more than you get atm.
If you cant get a solid answer from the jobcentre, ask to speak to someone else. good luck x

zensnake

Hello there,

I could do with a little advice if anyone knows anything.

I graduated back in 2004 and have been paying my loan back as and when i have earned over the earned income threshold.

Im due to go travelling in a weeks time and i am aware i need to notify the slc of my intentions and income for that period.

I have to provide evidence of how i am going to support myself, yet does not specify what evidence is appropiate, are they talking bank accounts or would my recent p45 and last p60 do?

Secondly as i have been paying through a PAYE system i was under the impression i would only pay a percentage of my earned income, but i recently learned of the unearned income threshold. I am unclear as to what constitutes unearned income.

Earlier this year i received a lump sum of cash from my share of an inheritance from the death of a grandparent. Does this qualify as being unearned income? and if so what percentage am i obliged to pay?

Any advice/links to info would be gratefully received.

All the best

Rob

MrsManda

zensnake wrote: »

I have to provide evidence of how i am going to support myself, yet does not specify what evidence is appropiate, are they talking bank accounts or would my recent p45 and last p60 do?

Earlier this year i received a lump sum of cash from my share of an inheritance from the death of a grandparent. Does this qualify as being unearned income? and if so what percentage am i obliged to pay?

Unearned Income I think refers to unearned taxable income. Gifts of money are not taxable though may be subject to inheritance tax.
Presumably the estate of your grandparent paid any inheritance tax which needed to be paid prior to you recieving the gift therefore you don't need to fill out a self assessment form for the HMRC.
If you don't need to fill out a self assessment form then you shouldn't need to make extra student loan payments.
I've included a couple of links of where I've got my information from but I am only a student so if you are concerned you may want to call the SLC.
On another note, my husband received a large sum of money from his parents and we didn't need to pay tax or extra student loan payments on that.

Oldernotwiser

sadeelisha wrote: »

Im no expert by far, but i would imagine your husband would still be able to claim income support for himself, but not for you.Child benefit and child tax credit would remain the same.
However, even though you would lose the income support for yourself, the money you recieve from loans/grants far outweigh this. You will get installments of your loan and grants every 3 months, probably far more than you get atm.
If you cant get a solid answer from the jobcentre, ask to speak to someone else. good luck x

Unfortunately, some of the student funding will affect means tested benefits and her husband may no longer get IS.

Zack1

I have a letter from Student Finance wanting half of my grant back from last year. It says they will recover it from "subsequent years" or at the end of my course, then there is a form for me to pay it and it says to phone the number to pay by credit/debit card My application for next year has already been approved, and still says the full grant. Can they just deduct it even though next years says the full amount? Or are they going to eventually update next years payments to lesser amounts? Are they even allowed to do that and can I appeal it? The amount they want back seems way too high

zensnake

@MrsManda



"Unearned Income I think refers to unearned taxable income. Gifts of money are not taxable though may be subject to inheritance tax.
Presumably the estate of your grandparent paid any inheritance tax which needed to be paid prior to you recieving the gift therefore you don't need to fill out a self assessment form for the HMRC.
If you don't need to fill out a self assessment form then you shouldn't need to make extra student loan payments.
I've included a couple of links of where I've got my information from but I am only a student so if you are concerned you may want to call the SLC.
On another note, my husband received a large sum of money from his parents and we didn't need to pay tax or extra student loan payments on that."

Thanks for the reply.

I rang the studentloans company and got a less than satisfactory advisor. He was not that sure of the rules himself led me to become more confused.

As i am travelling abroad i need to fill an overseas assessment form, which i was aware of. He said that the inheritance would simply be noted as my savings and an assessment would be made from that. Anything over 15,000 would be taken into account. But he could not tell me what percentage or anything.

The student loan website is confusing and barren of any information, i would just like to know where i stood thats all.

My plans are flexible at the moment, i may be working on a sporadic basis, and i do have savings too, but i dont know whether it would be criminal not to declare all my savings.

I have no aversion to paying my loan off, im just frustrated by the lack of information on my rights/ way to proceed.

MrsManda

zensnake wrote: »

He said that the inheritance would simply be noted as my savings and an assessment would be made from that. Anything over 15,000 would be taken into account. But he could not tell me what percentage or anything.

If your inheritance is just classed as savings then the unearned income is the interest you get on those savings. If you get over £2000 in interest over the year you'll need to pay extra student loan repayments.

janwilliams3

Can anyone out there help and I'm sorry if this has been asked before but there is slight panic stations in the house at the moment. My son went to uni 3 years ago and completed his first year and failed the second year. He has since worked full time for the next year and has been accpeted to start on a different undergraduate course next month on the grades he had when he left sixth form. He has just heard from student finance that he will not receive tuition fees or a maintenance loan for the first year as the max they will loan is for 4 years and he has had 2.

They will give him the loans in his 2nd and 3rd year but not his first. I am not in a position to pay any of the fees as I am financially compromised and his sister is also going to university next month. Anyone know if this is correct as the story seems to change a little every time he contacts them.

I guess what they're saying, quite rightly, is that if you mess up first time we want to make sure you complete the first year before we dip our hands in our pockets a second time but as it's a loan won't they get it back anyway?

Any help gratefully appreciated.