Help With Student Loans - HERE!

jaqxx

I’m applying for the student finance maintenance loan (income assessed), and my partner needs to submit a declaration of income for the tax year 2018/2019. However, in that tax year, my partner was living off savings, not working and also not receiving any benefits such as universal credit. If she says that her income in that year was £0 in the declaration, will that be sufficient? It says the assessors check this against HMRC records of employment, but will that still work for someone who was not employed but not registered as unemployed? If not, how does she prove she didn’t earn any money at that time?

[Deleted User]

jaqxx said:

I’m applying for the student finance maintenance loan (income assessed), and my partner needs to submit a declaration of income for the tax year 2018/2019. However, in that tax year, my partner was living off savings, not working and also not receiving any benefits such as universal credit. If she says that her income in that year was £0 in the declaration, will that be sufficient? It says the assessors check this against HMRC records of employment, but will that still work for someone who was not employed but not registered as unemployed? If not, how does she prove she didn’t earn any money at that time?

Your partner simply needs to fill the form in with details of their income from all sources.

If your partner has no income from any source, they simply put £0 in any/all applicable boxes. Do NOT leave boxes blank, it'll delay the process.

Their declaration is then checked with HMRC, and if it matches it matches - it is not for SLC to question how your partner is supporting themselves financially, only for details of their income.

You will only run into an 'issue' if HMRC say there's a discrepancy between what your partner said their income is, and what HMRC hold record of. Similarly, if your partner seemingly doesn't have a UK tax payer record at all, then they'll need to provide evidence of how they've been supporting themselves as HMRC won't be able to verify their income at all if that's the case.

jaqxx

Thanks for your answer! My partner was employed for a few years until 2017 and has been working again since mid 2019, so she does have records, but there’s nothing for the 2018/19 tax year.Hopefully there won’t be an issue then since she’s got records for the year immediately before and after this. I was just wondering since it’s hard to submit evidence of not earning anything (you don’t get a P60, obviously).

[Deleted User]

jaqxx said:

Thanks for your answer! My partner was employed for a few years until 2017 and has been working again since mid 2019, so she does have records, but there’s nothing for the 2018/19 tax year.Hopefully there won’t be an issue then since she’s got records for the year immediately before and after this. I was just wondering since it’s hard to submit evidence of not earning anything (you don’t get a P60, obviously).

They won't need to immediately submit evidence.

In the first instance they only need to supply information of their income from all sources.

I don't need to know details of course, but it would be remiss of me not to clarify; SLC will ask them if they received income from savings or investment.

Note carefully that a savings balance is NOT income, but interest earned from that balance IS.

When you come to that set of questions don't enter the savings balance, only enter a figure if any interest was received on the balance between 6/4/18-5/4/19.

In the unlikelihood that SLC need evidence after checking with HMRC, the only thing that your partner will be able to provide is their banking statements covering the period above.

jaqxx

Right, that sounds pretty straightforward. Does interest from a current account count as interest income? The account was earning some meagre interest at the time that was probably less than £3 a month. We don’t want to miss anything in case it does matter.

Savvy_Sue

jaqxx said:

Right, that sounds pretty straightforward. Does interest from a current account count as interest income? The account was earning some meagre interest at the time that was probably less than £3 a month. We don’t want to miss anything in case it does matter.

Yes. HMRC don't care where the interest comes from: it's income. And therefore SLC don't care where it comes from, but they need to know about it. 

You call that meagre interest, and obviously I don't know how much was in that account, but you'd be hard pressed to get £3 per month interest these days ... 

[Deleted User]

Savvy_Sue said:

jaqxx said:

Right, that sounds pretty straightforward. Does interest from a current account count as interest income? The account was earning some meagre interest at the time that was probably less than £3 a month. We don’t want to miss anything in case it does matter.

Yes. HMRC don't care where the interest comes from: it's income. And therefore SLC don't care where it comes from, but they need to know about it. 

You call that meagre interest, and obviously I don't know how much was in that account, but you'd be hard pressed to get £3 per month interest these days ... 

@Savvy_Sue is right, and of course not to imply you wouldn't declare it out of any attempt to decieve, but whether you believe it to be small or trivial or not relevant etc, you are asked to declare income from any/all sources. 

It is down to the Authority to decide whether it is relevant to the assessment, not the applicant.

While I appreciate your concern, if it's as straight forward as you've stated then there is no reason to believe it literally won't be that straight forward for them in the process.

You'll both get through the process regardless. As mentioned, there is always one type of evidence or other that you can supply - if the source of financial support is legitimats that is

Get your application in ASAP though, so as to avoid any delay in processing (this is their peak period).

silvercar

jaqxx said:

I’m applying for the student finance maintenance loan (income assessed), and my partner needs to submit a declaration of income for the tax year 2018/2019. However, in that tax year, my partner was living off savings, not working and also not receiving any benefits such as universal credit. If she says that her income in that year was £0 in the declaration, will that be sufficient? It says the assessors check this against HMRC records of employment, but will that still work for someone who was not employed but not registered as unemployed? If not, how does she prove she didn’t earn any money at that time?

As you say "partner" rather than spouse, I assume you aren't married or in a civil partnership. As such if you are under 25, unless you can prove that you have supported yourself for 3 tax years, the student loan assessment would be based on parental income.

jaqxx

Thank you all for your answers. I would simply not have remembered about the interest from the bank account because it gets added automatically at the end of each month, and on a fairly small balance the interest earned was very low indeed. Glad I know now that it all counts.

We’re both over 25, so I don’t think parental income is involved.

Savvy_Sue

jaqxx said:

Thank you all for your answers. I would simply not have remembered about the interest from the bank account because it gets added automatically at the end of each month, and on a fairly small balance the interest earned was very low indeed. Glad I know now that it all counts.

do you not get an annual statement of interest from them? I do, even on an account which doesn't actually pay any interest ... (savings account tied to a current account, amounts kept in there too small to actually lead to an interest payment!)

If you don't, you can probably ask for one, or download it from online statements?