Help With Student Loans - HERE!

SWMBO

I have a child who will be in their final year at university next year & am planning to start a Masters myself. Can I get my parental contribution for next year, i.e. 21/22 to be based on my much reduced income for the 21/22 year? Do we qualify for the same reduction to household income as we would get for having 2 siblings studying at the same time?

I've not been able to find anything online that relates to this situation!

[Deleted User]

SWMBO said:

I have a child who will be in their final year at university next year & am planning to start a Masters myself. Can I get my parental contribution for next year, i.e. 21/22 to be based on my much reduced income for the 21/22 year? Do we qualify for the same reduction to household income as we would get for having 2 siblings studying at the same time?

I've not been able to find anything online that relates to this situation!

In the 2021/22 AY, the financial information you MUST provide at the outset is relevant to the 2019/20 TY. However, unless you are suffering from a massive stroke of good luck, I'd wager your overall Household Income will be taking a hit of at least 15% if you too are to be a student during the 21/22 AY.

In which case you can apply for a Current Year Income Assessment to be considered. This will mean the Assessor will look at your whole estimated income from the 21/22 TY to work out both your child's entitlement, and your own (you don't get to choose to have it applied to just one application).

That is, assuming you have a spouse/partner living with you.

The basic setup here will be:

You and your partner (for ease, please consider husband, wife, commonlaw spouse, spouse, civil partner etc) will supply your known income for 2019/20 TY.

Request a Current Year Income Assessment to give an estimate of your 21/22 TY income (as accurate as poss.) And this will be used to determine your child's entitlement*

Any income used will be reduced slightly because you too are a student.

Similarly, your partner's income will be used to assess your entitlement to funding, and will in turn be reduced slightly because you have a child that is also a student.

E.g. your income and your partners for 2019/20 is £60000.00, but with you going to University it drops to £40000.00 (estimated).

That income is used to assess your child's entitlement, but is reduced by a further £1,130 because you're a student.

In your case, say your partner's contribution to that £40000.00 is £30000.00, that is the income that will be used in your assessment and again will be reduced by £1,130.00.

Hope this helps.

* a Current Year Income Assessment is based on estimated income, and only applied if the change is 15% or greater on the relecant tax year income initially used.

As it is based on estimated income, you should avoid either under or over estimating the income as much as possible to avoid either an under or overpaymsnt in entitlement (more so an overpayment, as this will need to be repaid by the student).

robbelluk

I was a student/undergraduate in 1990-1994, and have student loans from each year. Since I graduated, I have become disabled and unable to work. The Student Loans Company sold my debt at some point to Erudio Student Loans, who have had me repaying the loan despite my not earning above the threshold. Admittedly, I have got them to reduce the repayments about a year ago to £1 a month, but I have been paying them each month for some years, I think at £10 per month. 

I have seen on MoneySavingExpert that, if you have been repaying your loan despite not earning over the threshold, you are able to claim back your payments. Does this still apply if Erudio Student Loans own your debt?

Also, I will be 50 in 2 years. Do I still have to pay Erudio SL once I become 50?
Thanks in advance of any help you are able to give.

Rob

[Deleted User]

robbelluk said:

I was a student/undergraduate in 1990-1994, and have student loans from each year. Since I graduated, I have become disabled and unable to work. The Student Loans Company sold my debt at some point to Erudio Student Loans, who have had me repaying the loan despite my not earning above the threshold. Admittedly, I have got them to reduce the repayments about a year ago to £1 a month, but I have been paying them each month for some years, I think at £10 per month. 

I have seen on MoneySavingExpert that, if you have been repaying your loan despite not earning over the threshold, you are able to claim back your payments. Does this still apply if Erudio Student Loans own your debt?

Also, I will be 50 in 2 years. Do I still have to pay Erudio SL once I become 50?
Thanks in advance of any help you are able to give.

Rob

The owner of your debt may have changed but all of the contractual obligations, rights and T&Cs remain unchanged.

Erudio is obliged to provide you with a Deferment of Loan Repayment application form upon request. You are entitled to apply to defer your loan repayments, supplying evidence of your income from ALL sources in support of your application.

Erudio will then determine if your income is below the set threshold to be able to defer those repayments. This is an annual requiremebt, however, you may apply for extended deferment of upto 36 months if you can supply clear and sufficient evidence from a medical professional that your circumstance is unlikely to improve during that time in order for your income to exceed the threshold.

Deferment is NOT a right. It is subject to meeting eligibility criteria.

HOWEVER, from what you've said, it certainly seems that the agreement you've reached with Erudio (£1pm) certainly suggests this is to repay arrears.

This may appear accusatory, but please note it is simply for information purposes, but if you ARE in arrears it is a breach of contract in which case you will not be eligible to apply for deferment of any loan repayment until such time as the account is 'brought back into good standing' i.e. the arrears are cleared.

If this is the case, it also means that the clauses allowing you to apply for Loan Cancellation due to reaching certain events are also contestable by Erudio and they are not required to satisfy their obligation in this regard.

The loan cancellation clauses that would be applicable in this instance would be either that you have reached age 50, you last borrowed before 2006 (if I remember correctly) or if you were in receipt of a disability related benefit and were deemed permanently unfit for work.

These would become enforceable only once the account was brought back into good standing, but if the whole loan balance is now in arrears before either event occurred, you are wholly liable to repay the remaining balance.

But, you are only obliged to repay what you can afford. This will be considered by Erudio who are entitled to ask for details of your Income & Expenditure or seek court action to set a repayment schedule - although the latter is rarepy a route taken.

A lot of detail, but hope it helps answer your question.

robbelluk

Thank you very much for a very comprehensive answer. I shall speak to Erudio next week.

Thickie

Hi, I have a daughter who is due to go uni next year, but this is all new to me. I am divorced from her father and now live with a new partner. Our household income is such that she will only get the bare minimum in student loans where as if she registered at her father's she would be eligible for a larger loan. We have joint custody if that's still relevant when she will be over 18.
My questions are:
Can she use either address to apply? 

What is normally done in this situation?
Are there any significant pros / cons for one way over the other?

Many thanks in advance 

[Deleted User]

Thickie said:

Hi, I have a daughter who is due to go uni next year, but this is all new to me. I am divorced from her father and now live with a new partner. Our household income is such that she will only get the bare minimum in student loans where as if she registered at her father's she would be eligible for a larger loan. We have joint custody if that's still relevant when she will be over 18.
My questions are:
Can she use either address to apply? 

What is normally done in this situation?
Are there any significant pros / cons for one way over the other?

Many thanks in advance 

Basically, this is a loophole where the Government lies on the honesty of the applicant.

As she lives with you and your partner, she should be declaring such and you and they should also be supplying your details of your income in support the application IF she wants to be means-tested.

However, the sad fact is that many abuse the system in such a fashion, and claim they are living with whichever parent earns the least when it simply isn't the case.

The simple answer to your question is that she can select which of you to support her application.

I would highlight however that the Government, as with any publicly-sourced funding, are entitled to seek recovery of any and all paid funding if any detail provided during the application process is found to be false.

MushroomLover

I'm starting a top up masters course, in Specialist Community Public Health Nursing MSc, but I believe it's only an 120 credit 1 year course, so can't apply for a post graduate loan (180 credits required). Been rejected for undergrad finance, even though I could get it if I was doing same course at BSc level. 
Just doesn't make sense to me. Does anyone know of any extra support I can get?
Means I can't apply for DLS either, as that was applied for with student loan application. Was denied any childcare support also. 
I will be getting a wage for studying full time, but will be earning less, and paying out more for childcare, travel and uni books, etc. 
It doesn't make sense to me there is no financial support for other studies. 
I was hoping the student loan would cover the extra childcare costs. 

[Deleted User]

MushroomLover said:

I'm starting a top up masters course, in Specialist Community Public Health Nursing MSc, but I believe it's only an 120 credit 1 year course, so can't apply for a post graduate loan (180 credits required). Been rejected for undergrad finance, even though I could get it if I was doing same course at BSc level. 
Just doesn't make sense to me. Does anyone know of any extra support I can get?
Means I can't apply for DLS either, as that was applied for with student loan application. Was denied any childcare support also. 
I will be getting a wage for studying full time, but will be earning less, and paying out more for childcare, travel and uni books, etc. 
It doesn't make sense to me there is no financial support for other studies. 
I was hoping the student loan would cover the extra childcare costs. 

I'm afraid there's no publicly available funding you meet the criteria for by the sound of things.

You could consider approaching the NHS BSA and LSF for advice, but my understanding on the latter is that you need to be eligible for funding from SFE/W/NI or SAAS to qualify.

You may want to discuss your options with your employer if they're releasing you to study, or perhaps the Advice Centre at the Institute that will be accreditting your course.

Hope you get some useful information though.

DanEnr71

Hi, I'm looking for some advice because my previous study is affecting my tuition loan eligibility.

I started Uni in September 2020 (BEng Mechanical Engineering) and was told by Student Finance England that I wasn't eligible for the full amount of tuition loan. They explained that due to my previous study (2 year part-time HNC, self funded) I was eligible for one year less than the length of my course. This has left me in a situation where I'm having to try and raise the funds to pay for year 1 myself.

I understand now that whether previous higher level study was self funded or funded through a loan doesn't change anything, but I'm wondering if there's any other way I can get funding for this year. I keep finding incomplete, conflicting or outdated info unfortunately.

1. Does the fact that I completed my HNC (normally a 1 year course) part time over two years really mean I should have two full years of loan entitlement taken away from me?
2. I've also found some suggestions that if you're studying a STEM course, you could be entitled to some forms of extra tuition funding, but can't find any info on this. I think it's often relevant for people who want to study a second masters year, for example. Is this true? Does anyone have any information on this?
3. I'm considering appealing SFE's decision based on the fact I studied my HNC part time. Is this worth doing?
   

Unfortunately my Uni haven't really offered me much help or advice other than the option to pay all of this year's fees monthly by June 2021, which still leaves me with a massive monthly payment I can't afford.

Any help at all would be much appreciated!