PDF Parents' Guide To Student Finance 2009/10 Discussion

poppie123

Taiko wrote: »

They should be asking for evidence for the boyfriend moving in, so it would be best to send this straight away. Copies of the 08/09 P60 should do the trick.

Thanks for that.:D

I have just telephoned them and they have said that they will ask for evidence (P60 like you said) but he has to wait until they have sent him an email requesting it first, not to just send it. It can take a few days as it is still showing as awaiting assessment.

I wouldn't know where to send it too anyway.

Taiko

Student Finance England
PO BOX 210
Darlington
DL1 9HJ

Why they're telling you not to send it yet I don't know though.

tesuhoha

My daughter did a degree course but did not get a degree. She had a full student loan. She now wants to do a midwifery course at university. Will she still qualify for a student loan? Does anyone know?

Taiko

Even if she had a degree, she would qualify for the maintenance loan only under the terms definied within The Student Support Regulations 2009. Fee support is administered by the NHS.

oldster61

Taiko wrote: »

Just as a note to anyone else, I will be on hand to answer any technical queries.

I have been employed as an assessor for an LEA for the last 3 years, and have a depth of knowledge regarding support, the regulations, payments, anything.

Hi, sorry for the off-the-wall approach but our only child (daughter) is due to start University in England in September and we need to apply for Student Finance loans as a matter of urgency. Being complete newbies and approaching over the hill I have two questions:
1. what exactly constitutes residual income and how is it evidenced to the SFE - the reason for this question is that I am approaching retirement and although I'm lucky enough to have a gross income of over £25k, we have done the sums and could survive on less than 25k living costs per annum (with some belt-tightening and small savings we have) and I'd like to commit more of that gross to my pension to help build the retirement pot. In the process (here's hopeful) we'd also bring our daughter's eligibility for a full maintenance grant into reality - is this possible?
2. a related question is that, to do so I would have to (as a matter of priority) instruct my employers of the salary sacrifice mechanism and then inform SFE of the circumstances (as my income would be less than the previous year's figures that they would normally base their assessment on) - this assumes that the above question means that if I do make pension contributions at source and my residual income is then below the grant thresholds. How would I get SFE to accept the "new" residual income picture rather than the previous year's figures?
Hope that these make sense as questions and that someone can hopefully provide an answer that looks favourably on the intention, so that I can build up my pension prior to retirement.
Thanks

Savvy_Sue

I don't know under what circumstances they'll accept a change of year for your income assessment. I do know I had to send off my annual letter from my stakeholder pension saying what I'd paid in. Failing that, I think they'd have accepted a letter from my employer stating what had been deducted for the pension pot.

reidste

Hi,

Im sorry if this sounds mercinery, but :- I live and have lived with my partner and her daughter for the past eight years and do class her as my daughter even though she is not biologically mine and I have no legal Parental Responsibilty. I am not married to her mother.

My partners child is now applying for a student loan and on the original application has supplied me as the parental major income earner and she has come out as having basically no support other than having to borrow everything that she needs. This is a major problem for us as I cannot afford to support her; My income is reasonable, but, I also presently pay over £500.00 per month to the CSA (including the back-dated-debt that they are forcing me to pay withing 2 years, crippling; they actually made me add a standing order payment because by law they are not permitted to get more by deduction of earnings. arrghhhhh). My partner doesn't work and therefore has no income of her own.

My question is, firstly, do I count as her "parent" in this instance in terms of having to support her and therefore reduce the amount of support that she would recieve from the government? and secondly, If I do not count, or count less than a "biological" parent, then If she has literally just submitted her application, can I change it now if I have not yet added my "Support" for that application via the website ?

Thank you very much for your help and advice and I do feel embarrassed having to ask but I really cannot afford to help and dont want her to miss out.

Taiko

I'm afraid you do count, and the outgoings aren't taken into account I'm afraid.

MrsManda

As Taiko said your income does count, however this doesn't necessarily mean she has to miss out. I've have friends who for various reasons have not been able to be income assessed or they've been income assessed and not been eligible for any grants but unable to have parental help. They may need to budget a bit more than other students, and not go for the top end student accommodation but it is doable. She'll probably need to get a job but most students do, and you may be able to help out in small ways such as taking her food shopping when she moves into accommodation - a large bag of pasta, tinned tomatoes, cereal and a few other bits which won't go off will help alot and it's quite sociable getting together with the others sharing your accommodation to do a big lot of bolognaise & cheap

reidste

Thanks very much for your help and advice. I thought as much.

We will just have to tighten our belts and get lots of SMASH in ;-)