Help With Student Loans - HERE!

simongiffin

ok - thanks for your help

Savvy_Sue

_shel wrote: »

Yes they could fail on residency. You need to have lived in the U.K. For 3 years prior to the course start.

https://www.gov.uk/student-finance/who-qualifies

I have a feeling that if the student would have been in the UK had the parents' job not taken them out of the UK (ie ordinary place of residence is in the UK) then they'll be OK, but that link from shel takes you to how to apply, rather than guidance on the details.

sebastiancantonsmummy

I wonder if anyone can help?

When I was working I gained a Professional Diploma in Marketing and a Postgraduate Professional Diploma in marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing. These are marketed by them as a level 6 and level 7 qualification. It was funded by my work with no student maintenance or tuition fee loans or Government assistance. They are professional rather than academic qualifications and I did not attend University or take time off work to complete them.

I have now had a child and taken some time off to be with him and decided after a long and difficult journey to retrain as a genetic counsellor to offer help to others who are in the same situation as I was in when trying to have a baby. This involves studying for a degree n psychology. I do not receive any benefits (apart from standard child benefit) and own (mortgaged) our house.

I was told I needed to complete an access to science which I am now doing and have an advanced learner loan in place for the fees for this. When I applied for this I was told I would be able to get a student loan for University however when I started the course my tutor expressed concerns that this may not be the case as I already have a qualification. I called student finance England three times speaking to three different people, first said definitely no to the loan, second said maybe and the third said yes. None would give me anything in writing. As I was already committed to the access to science I have just carried on but it is now getting closer to UCAS time so I called again this week and the man spoke to his supervisor who confirmed they could not tell me until I apply.

UCAS deadline in 15th January, I cannot apply for the loan until February at the earliest when applications open. I don't want to waste the university's time and possible take a place from someone who would get finance if realistically I'm not going to but it seems I'm in a bit of a chicken and egg situation.

Has anyone got any experience of this or able to offer any advice at all?

Many thanks for staying with me if you've got this far!

Savvy_Sue

sebastiancantonsmummy wrote: »

UCAS deadline in 15th January, I cannot apply for the loan until February at the earliest when applications open. I don't want to waste the university's time and possible take a place from someone who would get finance if realistically I'm not going to but it seems I'm in a bit of a chicken and egg situation.

Has anyone got any experience of this or able to offer any advice at all?

What a ludicrous situation! However, my advice would be to apply to UCAS, you're not wasting their time, and even if you were then you wouldn't be the only one IYSWIM.

Also you're not taking someone else's place. Universities are quite used to not being able to predict exactly how many students they will have in October having offered X places earlier in the year. If, after A level results, there are places available then they will be offered through clearing.

Also, the access course you're doing at the moment could end up being useful even if this particular next step doesn't pan out exactly as you're currently hoping.

One thing though: SFE aren't always the fastest at confirming grant status, it's not unknown for students to start before finance has been confirmed. So get your application in as soon as you can, with all the documentation required, so that they are without excuse.

rchalk

Hi - my hubby has a Sports Therapy degree (in hindsight this was a waste to f time and money) and now wishes to do an Osteopath degree. He's been informed he cannot get a student loan to cover the course fee. Is there any other option? The fees are £9.5k a year so not something we can afford to cover ourselves! Thanks

StudentWill

Hey! I'm interested to know if your employer can make student loan contributions through salary sacrifice. This would save a small fortune in tax if possible! I know that it would need to be set up before April too as the SS rules are changing!

Thanks
Will

almostanadult

I'm a professional artist whose son is approaching university entry (this September if he gets his grades). I only just found out the maintenance loans are means tested. The issue is that although usually we survive on a very low income (I often earn less than 10k a year) the last two tax years were straddled by a one off big art project which pushed my income right up on paper (although in reality I had enormous expenses for the project such as building a new garden studio to complete the project which was not tax-deductable so I didn't end up with very much money at all). But it makes it look like I fall into the high income bracket in terms of my son applying for student finance. Next tax year and so forth there is no likelihood of such a big project being repeated. We have no spare income to give him and I am very frightened now that this will prevent him going to university which he has worked so hard for. I feel really stupid that I didn't know about the means testing before as I would have been better off (and so would he) if I had turned away the big project but the talk at his school about student loans didn't mention the means testing at all! Have I totally screwed my sons chances? According to the calculators it's saying I need to supplement him by about 5-6k a year! This year I am expected to earn about 12k max so that's just impossible. Can anyone help? I've looked into bursaries at his first choice uni but they seem to only be available to people with incomes lower than 30k which again, on paper, the last two tax years it looks like I didn't. But the reality is very different from what the figures show because of the large unavoidable expense of building a studio to accommodate the project.

silvercar

almostanadult wrote: »

I'm a professional artist whose son is approaching university entry (this September if he gets his grades). I only just found out the maintenance loans are means tested. The issue is that although usually we survive on a very low income (I often earn less than 10k a year) the last two tax years were straddled by a one off big art project which pushed my income right up on paper (although in reality I had enormous expenses for the project such as building a new garden studio to complete the project which was not tax-deductable so I didn't end up with very much money at all). But it makes it look like I fall into the high income bracket in terms of my son applying for student finance. Next tax year and so forth there is no likelihood of such a big project being repeated. We have no spare income to give him and I am very frightened now that this will prevent him going to university which he has worked so hard for. I feel really stupid that I didn't know about the means testing before as I would have been better off (and so would he) if I had turned away the big project but the talk at his school about student loans didn't mention the means testing at all! Have I totally screwed my sons chances? According to the calculators it's saying I need to supplement him by about 5-6k a year! This year I am expected to earn about 12k max so that's just impossible. Can anyone help? I've looked into bursaries at his first choice uni but they seem to only be available to people with incomes lower than 30k which again, on paper, the last two tax years it looks like I didn't. But the reality is very different from what the figures show because of the large unavoidable expense of building a studio to accommodate the project.

Don't panic just yet, you can get your income re assessed if it drops by 15%. In any case, the higher income would only apply for one year. See here (that is from Wales but they are all similar):

If your household income drops by 15% or more
Academic year 2016/17

In academic year 2016/17, we will look at your income for the tax year 2014-15 to work out how much money the student is entitled to. However, if your household income drops by 15% or more, the student should let us know, and we will review your income using your income for the current tax year for the basis for a new assessment.

You should complete and send in a Current Year Income Assessment Form if your income changes while the student is studying.

At the end of the tax year, we will write to you for evidence of your income for that tax year.

silvercar

StudentWill wrote: »

Hey! I'm interested to know if your employer can make student loan contributions through salary sacrifice. This would save a small fortune in tax if possible! I know that it would need to be set up before April too as the SS rules are changing!

Thanks
Will

I don't see why not, though you would still have to make your contributions from earned income, so not sure what you would gain by having extra payments other than paying off your loan earlier with less interest.

cfar

Hi,

I Hope this is the correct forum. I've been graduated for about 10 years and now and thus been paying of my student loan, however I'm moving to Canada on a working visa for a year and wondered what I would I need to do and what I would be expected to pay.

After conducted my own research and seen I have to fill out an assessment form (I currently do not have a job to start but do have savings to get me starter). I also noticed that the Threshold is roughly the same as the UK, does this mean I will not be expected to pay anything until I meet this threshold?

Thanks in advance,

Craig