Earn upto £3,500 for 30 minutes work!!! 'Access to Learning Fund'

pinky_123

i have applied for access to learning fund about 4 weeks ago. however because this is my placement year i have been told that most likely i wont receive anything. i started placement in june but it was on a zero hour contract and it was temp. i finished in october and have no money, i have proved this through bank account statements etc. i have been applying for jobs etc but no luck as yet. do you think i will be entitled to anything, i have shown the uni my bills- threats of disconnection etc. the woman i spoke to is saying that because its my placement year i should be working even though my placement was temp and on zero hour contract. its not easy finding another job and its taking time. what can i do? help please!

yeslek

lewt wrote:

someone's 12 grand+ in debt in their second year? they need to come to this site more... or not go out so much....

like i do

i havnt applied for alf..yet...but fully intend too. its getting to the point where i need to reduce what hours i work, even by just one day a week, to keep up but financially i cant do it ( its about £200 a month less if i do)

i do feel a little guiltly about applying though as i know there are loads of people out there in worse situations than me ie possibility of eviction (which i dont need to worry about) which is kinda why i'm delaying in applying.

hmm

i might get thr forms later actually and at least give it a go, if i dont get it then fair enough

does anyone know how long it takes to be informed of a decision? (i think i read it somewhere back through this thread but i cant seem to find it now)

raju786

hi all, got a bit of a probolem myself here, first of all i am near enough totally skint, i have a student barclays account which is in -£150 and the overdraft limit is £200! iv heard to get it lifted you need to deposit at least £500 in, but i dont even have £500 to deposit! The reason why my loan has disapeared so quickly is because im having to travel home quite a lot, and i dont live nearby so im paying £40 return ticket back home nearly every week, on top of the the once or twice a week going out and other student costs, i havnt even got all my course books i need! I also have 2 contracts going out as well as a credit card bill to pay... This is where i thought things had got worse but to top ot off i accidently dropped a glass of water on top of my laptop (no insurance) and i need one asap, i would now try and apply for the ALF but... the problem is there has been some betfair transactions.... but to be fair whatver has gone in came back in if not a bit more within a week, my question is will they consider my application as i need a laptop and maybe another 500 so i can increase my barclays overdraft just to live on. looking for a job at the moment but no luck
anyones help greatly appreciated

crazy_guy

Seems like there's quite alot of people needed to apply to the access to learning fund - i've been told its not based upon your unsecured debts, but instead your expected income and expected expenditure and the shortfall in that. I worked out there would have been several months of me having nil money at all, and when i applied, after 2 weeks i recieved a letter stating i would be getting £1000 so am very happy Well worth doing!!

jamesworth

I have been rejected for the grant as I didnt take the full student loan. I took about 75% and am a mature student. I wll certainly be appealing as I dont think that is fair at all. Has anyone got any tips for the appeal letter? Thanks

crazy_guy

jamesworth wrote:

I have been rejected for the grant as I didnt take the full student loan. I took about 75% and am a mature student. I wll certainly be appealing as I dont think that is fair at all. Has anyone got any tips for the appeal letter? Thanks

Someone please correct me if i'm wrong, but the ALF should not have denied you the funds because you are a mature student - these are exactly the groups they are targetting.

However i am aware that to apply you MUST have taken 100% of your loan - most probably to combat some devious students deliberately take out less of a loan so that they get more of a student grant.

I'd argue however that even if you did take out the full loan you would still have a large deficit - but how come you did not take advantage of the full loan?

Shush29

Just got the letter from uni and its very bad news:( I applied for help for my sons nursery place, put him in there thinking i would get help for child tax grant but that was refused based on income threshold....

The letter says ALF can only be allocated to students who have shown they have an essential income shortfall between their income and expenditure and that this will cause financial hardship during the academic year. Your application has been refused because you cannot demonstrate such a shortfall.

The decision is final and there is no right to appeal. I am sorry this is not a more welcome response however if your circumstances change considerably, you may be able to apply for a reassessment....

I did show i have £150 income shortfall a week!!! i live with my partner who is in full time work but on average wage. Could they have messed up on their sums or is that figure not high enough? On the covering letter i did not say the shortfall as i thought they would do the adding up and i gave them all the papers. It was hard doing the figures having in mind that you have a partner and he has his own expenses..Both our bank accounts are heading to an overdraft and will need to go to dept to pay the £1000 nursery fees for this term. The only problem is my bank wont give the overdraft...No right to appeal is just crazy...

robhammond

Hi all,

Thi is just a bump on the message boards for this thread, I'm aware a lot of you will be coming back to Uni wondering how on earth you are going to survive financially this term.

The Access to Learning Fund may be of use to you. Read through the thread (I know it's huge!) and you should pretty much find any answers to questions you may have. If not always post them and I or somebody else who has been through the system will try to help.

Good Luck!

Rob

Oompa_Loompa_2

Hi, my rent is quite expensive - Rob you mentioned before that they do not take lavish spending into account! So I wonder if I would be penalised for my high rent? My loan is the maximum amount, I work part time, I am at the upper end of my £2000 overdraft, have had to borrow from my parents to pay my rent in the last couple of months and owe £1400 on credit cards. In your first post, it said credit cards were not considered but in a later post someone recommended declaring ALL your outgoings and incomings. I wonder what would give me the best chance of receiving something?

apoorstudent

Damn, the title of this thread excited me... But alas, I'm never eligable for any 'free' money :P