Mature Student with 2 dependants (financial)

carolan78

Hello all I have a place to start uni in september (conditional) if I meet the conditions and start I am wondering what help there is available. Last year our household income was 20500 with me working. I am currently not working and will not work when at uni. Our household income will therefore be £13500pa

From all the information I have read can anyone give rough firgures as to what help I will be able to get (I have 2 children 3 and 1). From what I understand I can get childcare help (it will be aprox £1200 a month) which child tax won't pay anything towards.

Then theres the maintenance grant, maintenance loan and adult learners grant...have I overlooked anything I might be entitled to, I am trying to work out if we can mange it and what kind of budget we will be looking at.

Oldernotwiser

carolan78 wrote: »

Hello all I have a place to start uni in september (conditional) if I meet the conditions and start I am wondering what help there is available. Last year our household income was 20500 with me working. I am currently not working and will not work when at uni. Our household income will therefore be £13500pa

From all the information I have read can anyone give rough firgures as to what help I will be able to get (I have 2 children 3 and 1). From what I understand I can get childcare help (it will be aprox £1200 a month) which child tax won't pay anything towards.

Then theres the maintenance grant, maintenance loan and adult learners grant...have I overlooked anything I might be entitled to, I am trying to work out if we can mange it and what kind of budget we will be looking at.

Have a look on www.direct.gov.uk for detailed information. You should be eligible for the Fee Loan, Maintenance Loan, Maintenance Grant, University Bursary, Childcare Grant and Parents Learning Allowance, most of which are means tested but should be available on your income.

I assume that you already claim Tax Credits?

Seabean

Hi

All the universities have special hardship funds that students can usually access too. I was a single parent at uni and successfully applied to this fund two years running getting in total I think between £1000 - £1500. There was a claim form to be filled out and I had to get it countersigned by my personal tutor but generally people either don't know about these funds or don't think they would qualify so much money goes unclaimed.

Good luck with it all.

carolan78

Thanks for the replies, yes we do already get tax credits. I have looked at the direct gov site but seem to get lost in all the info :rotfl:

I will go have another look at it, it is mainly the childcare I am worried about with it been so expensive.

Taiko

If that's £13,500 net income, you will need to have significant outgoings to qualify for PLA, Childcare and Adult Dependants Grant. Allowable outgoings are things like rent, council tax, life/medical insurance, building insurance, mortgage payments

carolan78

It is gross and currently our rent is £720 a month plus council tax so until we finally get a council house we do have significant outgoings

I think I have finally manage to roughly work out what I will be entitled to and should be able to work a budget around that

lee12_2

Have you applied for a student loan ?
I saw on the forms that they ask about dependents and work out your loan acording to income , we have under 17k income and have been filling in these forms for our children over the past 4 years and have always qualified for full support. I know they went straight from A2's but it might be worth looking on student finance direct site , you can apply up to 9mths after start date and will still be considered, but the sooner you apply the stronger the chance you will get it in September
Must be worth a look..

Taiko

I have a spreadsheet for calcs, unfortunately I'm not allowed to upload it. If you wanted to give me some ballpark figures for outgoings I'll do a calculation for you.

carolan78

Thank you..

Rent £720
Council Tax £80
Gas £50
Electric £40
Telephone/internet £20
Tv License £12
Food £240
Car Tax £12
Car Insurance £45
Home Insurance £20

Taiko

Ok, only allowable outgoings there are Rent, Council Tax and Home Insurance.

I'll do a rough calculation for you in the morning. Heat is keeping me awake, and I have work in 7 hours

Taiko

Sorry, missed something. Do you get tax credits? If so, I need the amounts if possible.