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

Danyúl_II

Kiyo wrote: »

Thanks Dany!l. But being untruthful totally goes against my nature. I don't know what else I could possibly have told them that would have gone in my favour anyway.

I just hope the 99% and 1% get what they actually deserve eventually

Oh, absolutely!

May the good Lord strike them down :A

Trent1

Fyrephin wrote: »

Disabled students also get priority (I am one, I should know!), as do those estranged from their parents (again, that's me) and those in exceptional circumstances (well I'm currently Homeless/in temporary unsuitable accommodation so...).

Actually I am disabled wihtout adequate funding from my county council (well £10 per academic week!) so I have just written a letter to appeal the decision. Should be interesting...

Ian

Greyandfawn

From what I know of ALF it works very much like Income Support, but for students. The government decides a lot of the figures used in the assessments especially 'allowable' expenditure and assumed income. In effect, students are supposed to be able to live on the same amount as people on benefits. There are also caps applied to the rent/mortgage costs. Non-priority debts( e.g credit/store cards) are not included unless they are part of a debt repayment schedule. The standard assessment then is very much worked out with this formula. I'm not saying that this method is right or wrong, just that's how it works.
There is always the option of a 'non-standard award' which is to help in unforeseen circumstances- which could be illness/loss of a partners' job/burglary. Ask to see an advisor at the uni or the SU. Non-statndards can be more useful for looking at personal situations.
Hope this helps.

diddlydum

The administrators have two ways of assessing your income for ALF- there's a 'standard' assessment and a 'non-standard' assessment. In both assessments they look at your income and expenditure and decide how much you should get based on the shortfall. Your expenditure is assessed according to a set of reasonable expenditure figures, set in conjunction with the Government and the University.

If you have exceptional circumstances it's more likely to be a non-standard award and you have to justify why you need it. That's where the personal statement section comes into play.

You really shouldn't lie on the personal statement- that's fraud and if it comes to light you'll be out on your ear- but shy bairns get nowt.

The amount you receive will depend on your personal circumstances and small differences can affect the amount you receive. No two cases are completely identical and, to be completely honest, I have very little time for people who whinge about how unfair ALF is. It's there to help people out in an emergency, not as an alternative to vacation and part-time work for people too lazy to help themselves.

Speaking as an SU advisor in a personal capacity, I think the way ALF is described on here is a little unhelpful. It's an emergency pot of money to help those who are struggling financially, it's not an extra source of student support. People shouldn't come to rely on ALF because the pot is shrinking all the time bercause of Government cutbacks.

Kiyo

diddlydum wrote: »

The administrators have two ways of assessing your income for ALF- there's a 'standard' assessment and a 'non-standard' assessment. In both assessments they look at your income and expenditure and decide how much you should get based on the shortfall. Your expenditure is assessed according to a set of reasonable expenditure figures, set in conjunction with the Government and the University.

If you have exceptional circumstances it's more likely to be a non-standard award and you have to justify why you need it. That's where the personal statement section comes into play.

You really shouldn't lie on the personal statement- that's fraud and if it comes to light you'll be out on your ear- but shy bairns get nowt.

The amount you receive will depend on your personal circumstances and small differences can affect the amount you receive. No two cases are completely identical and, to be completely honest, I have very little time for people who whinge about how unfair ALF is. It's there to help people out in an emergency, not as an alternative to vacation and part-time work for people too lazy to help themselves.

Speaking as an SU advisor in a personal capacity, I think the way ALF is described on here is a little unhelpful. It's an emergency pot of money to help those who are struggling financially, it's not an extra source of student support. People shouldn't come to rely on ALF because the pot is shrinking all the time bercause of Government cutbacks.

"I have very little time for people who whinge about how unfair ALF is. It's there to help people out in an emergency, not as an alternative to vacation and part-time work for people too lazy to help themselves"

When people are using it to buy cars, buy their houses or drink it away while people in genuine need apply and get very little help or nothing at all then it is unfair. I can't think of a situation that is more of an emergency than not being able to afford to live.

It's incredibly insensitive to imply that people who apply for ALF are simply being too lazy to help themselves.

In case you haven't noticed, there is currently a recession going on. Students might be exempt for help but they are not exempt from the economy. Rent and bills still need to be paid. If you can't get a job, you have no money. If you have no money, the landlord isn't going to say oh, I'll let you stay rent free for four months and I'll thrown in some free gas and a food basket.

I spent four days last week, (when I should have been revising) filling out job form, after job form after job form. I've applied for twenty over the past two weeks. In the past I've had to spend my summer vacation in chicken factories just to keep the roof above my head.

I can't get a job. I have no money. I'm a mature student. I can't get parental help. I now know that the help the university claims to provide isn't there. And I have four months of no electricity, no gas, no phone and I have no idea how I am going to pay my rent, water or buy food.

I could keep hold of my loan with the intention of using it to pay my rent and bills but then I won't be allowed back to study next year because I will owe the university money.

I would love to see just what constitutes an "exceptional circumstance" if penniless doesn't cut it. Maybe I just don't have a daddy who plays golf with the Dean

jd87

Does anyone know if I can claim ALF retrospectively? What I mean is during my last holiday I had to stay at uni instead of going home. This was so that I could stay close to ongoing medical treatment and do extra revision to catch up with missed work due to medical issues. As a result I had to pay extra halls fees and couldn't work, so i think I might be entitled to ALF.

The question is, I didn't really know about ALF until halfway through the holiday I should've been claiming for, and then I've put it off a few weeks more because I've been too busy to think about it.

If I put in a claim now might I still get something? I'm graduating in about 6 weeks...

Greyandfawn

jd87 wrote: »

Does anyone know if I can claim ALF retrospectively? What I mean is during my last holiday I had to stay at uni instead of going home. This was so that I could stay close to ongoing medical treatment and do extra revision to catch up with missed work due to medical issues. As a result I had to pay extra halls fees and couldn't work, so i think I might be entitled to ALF.

The question is, I didn't really know about ALF until halfway through the holiday I should've been claiming for, and then I've put it off a few weeks more because I've been too busy to think about it.

If I put in a claim now might I still get something? I'm graduating in about 6 weeks...

The best thing to do is contact the univesity student services or the SU- you may be able to apply depending on the closing date, which in turn depends on how much funding may be left.

ryouga

I had a problem that I couldnt get 3 months bank statements and when I finally could my loan had just come in so they said I couldnt apply! doesnt matter that I have no other source of income and come from a family on benefits but because im a non smoker or drinker and dont party or go on holiday a lot I manage to be good with money so I have some left whereas the ones who spent their entire loan in a week or two got loads of handouts.

Kinda unfair IMO

Fyrephin

Trent1 wrote: »

Actually I am disabled wihtout adequate funding from my county council (well £10 per academic week!) so I have just written a letter to appeal the decision. Should be interesting...

Ian

Then if you make it clear you are unfit to work (as I am), they can't use the part where they add to your income what they assume most students get from part time work. But you have to explicitally state that.

diddlydum

jd87 wrote: »

Does anyone know if I can claim ALF retrospectively?

No! You can claim ALF if you're in hardship and struggling financially, but it is NOT there to pay for things you can afford to pay yourself.

If you don't have enough money now to live on then you can apply.

Kiyo wrote:

It's incredibly insensitive to imply that people who apply for ALF are simply being too lazy to help themselves.

In case you haven't noticed, there is currently a recession going on. Students might be exempt for help but they are not exempt from the economy.

Who implied that, poppet?

I simply stated the facts: ALF is there to help people in hardship, not to provide extra drinking money for people too lazy to get a job. The way ALF is sold, especially on here, implies that it's a wonderful pot of free money and it's not. ALF allocations are plummeting all the time and there's less money for more students.

If you were turned down you can re-apply or challenge the decision, but the decision is based on a number of factors, not just hardship. If you came to University without a sound financial plan then that counts against you. If you're coming to University knowing that you've got a reduced financial support package, you're expected to have taken steps to resolve that before starting the course. ALF is there if your financial plans go wrong (e.g. you get made redundnant from a part-time job, scholarships don't appear when promised, etc). ALF is not there to top-up statutory support for people who knew the score before coming to University, unless they've got a bloody good reason why they didn't take steps to solve the problems themselves first.

I have huge amounts of sympathy for people in hardship, regardless of cause. Huge amounts. But I firmly believe that ALF is there to help people who are in hardship through someone else's fault, it's not there to bail out people who are incapable of making sound financial plans before coming to Uni. And the ALF guidance agrees with me: if you need hardship because you've blown your budget, ALF's given as a loan rather than a grant.