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

00ec25

juanmanuelmarquez wrote: »

Hi nimbo,
Thanks for the reply, yes i worked part time in outbound sales part time whilst studying and then was just about getting by, however, the call centre changed hands and those who were newly hired got made redundant. i was claiming housing benefit and thats it and couldnt claim job seekers as im studying and working 15hrs a week. if i work more then i wont have the time to study.

i understand the unis have computer rooms and libraries, but how can childcare be a cost and electric not be?

but what is the appeals process, do you have to write a letter or send more info?

the ALF rules are rigid where a part time student is concerned, each HEI has to elect to use either the "threshold model" or the "income model". The election must be consistent - they cannot switch between the two

under the threshold model the assumption is that part timers can work longer hours than a full timer and can thus earn a "living" wage. Therefore, the only permitted costs allowed in the means test for a part timer with the threshold model are costs directly related to the course (eg. books, field trips etc). This excludes any and all "living" costs as you would have to pay those anyway whilst not at your studies

if the HEI uses the income model then the normal means test is done but the earnings used are actual rather than notional. The composite living cost is allowed as expdenditure but may be pro rated according to your part time proportion (note you must be at least 50% FTE as a minimum to be eligible for ALF at all)

childcare is an allowed cost because it is recognised that a parent has to either work or look after the child. Obviously this is mutually exclusive and therefore the cost of childcare can be paid for under ALF as the fact the person is now a student prevents them from either working or looking after the rugrat.
Note the child care must be supported by evidence of actual payment - you need a receipt if you are claiming the grandparents incur costs looking after the little pests

~Chameleon~

When is the best time to apply for one of these grants?

Elle7

~Chameleon~ wrote: »

When is the best time to apply for one of these grants?

It's not a grant. It's a discretionary fund that the university can distribute to students who are in urgent need, and who may have to stop studying if they don't get financial help.

It's worth noting that they are very thorough with looking through bank statements and seeing where money has been spent, and in my experience they won't give money towards expenses that you haven't tried to cover. Fair enough if they were unexpected, but you can't apply to make up the difference if you just didn't have enough money - they'll want to know what the plan was.

They also expect you to have taken full student finance, and a student account.

Near the end of the funds, around now, it can be difficult to get any money because the pot is dry. Near the beginning, its difficult to give any good reason why you have already run out of money. There isn't really a best time - although if you get the paperwork from your own uni, they usually state their busiest times.

juanmanuelmarquez

well i appealed and they denied it. what a waste of time that was, the amount of ink i wasted is unbelieable making photocopies of everything.

i was told that apparantley the goverment used to increase the pot every year, however, since the torries have taken over they put a hold on it and now they will be reducing it for all unis.

so i guess with all the cuts it will not be long until this ALF will not longer be available as it stands it like applying for a bloody mortgage trying to £50! the amount of debt im in its unbelieable i could have had a house by now!

hate to see whats going to happen next year....

juanmanuelmarquez

i think it was 3.5k maximum and it changed to 2k and now it will be reduced to probably £500maximum

juanmanuelmarquez

~Chameleon~ wrote: »

When is the best time to apply for one of these grants?

its not a grant, its access to learning which is upto your institution whether your eligable as mine think im not due to bills not considered and the things that are considered are study related like books and travel and stationary equipment however, this all seems to be capped! (i.e books at £50 etc...) and if your total amount is less than £100 you automatically become ineligable as thats what happened to me.


its a waste of time if you ask me, this post is 7 years old so what do you expect, the same amount of money is no longer available thanks to the new goverment, there was a programme on tv about how the goverment is making disabled work and cutting their benefits, how low can you go? im surprised people are not rioting again because this is pure deprivation in the uk....and yet its credit crunch, well maybe if david cameron cut his own wage to minimum apprentiship wage then maybe we will not be in the credit crunch double dip! with the cuts to grants, no grants available, all discretionary funds, benefit cuts, job cuts, now torries goverment have torn the students to shreds, so the interim students like me and you are suffering as a result!....how do we complete our studies without worrying about debt and money issues!

~Chameleon~

Elle7 wrote: »

It's not a grant. It's a discretionary fund that the university can distribute to students who are in urgent need, and who may have to stop studying if they don't get financial help.

Thanks, I think I'm possibly confusing this with a grant/funding I've been advised to apply for at my university for hardship but is paid by the university, not the government.

00ec25

juanmanuelmarquez wrote: »

how do we complete our studies without worrying about debt and money issues!

I am sorry you lost your job and are now short of money but that's life, ranting won't change anything.
ALF is not limitless and the eligiblty rules are proscribed, I ought to know, I check their application here
there are about 120 HEI in the UK, the allocation to be shared amongst them all next year 12/13 is £36m, down 10%, but is not dished out based simply on student numbers at each institution eg Bristol will get £156k next year and has 18.5k students whereas Brighton will get £377k for its 21k students it is based on the needs of each population

00ec25

~Chameleon~ wrote: »

Thanks, I think I'm possibly confusing this with a grant/funding I've been advised to apply for at my university for hardship but is paid by the university, not the government.

you probabaly are
every university has a finite allocation each year under ALF, which operates to rigid rules set by HEFCE and is indeed a shrinking pot
(nearly) every univeristy also has its own hardship funds over whjich it has complete discretion. This money mainly comes from charitable donations such as from alumni, so, as you can imagine, some universitiies have bigger pots than others and can be at lot more generous in their rules than is allowed under ALF

Fogs

Hi,

I have just applied for this at my uni, I am in my third year now (fourth year if including first year foundation) and I have a maxed overdraft and many bills etc. the past years I had lived in student accompdation with the uni so just paid so much each semester and no bills. Now I have moved in to another accompdation it's a bit more difficult. My landlord decided to only give our accompdation part furnished so we had to buy new stuff which we were in aware of at first or we would not have agreed to live here. And a fourth person dropping out last minute means our rent is higher each. I had worked for the past two years of uni and got diagnosed with ibs and anxiety which led me to quitting my job a few months ago due to stress and exams etc. I am also wearing hearing aids so getting a job is difficult to some extent. I had not been able to work over summer so now have no money and my outgoings is more then my incoming a and I have no idea how I am going to cope especially for this first semester.

Do you have any idea what my chances are of getting a fund? As I have applied for it and mainly relying on getting help as a case of being able to live.

Another pointer is I could go back to work but I prefer not too as my personal tutor recommended not too as final year is very busy as I have to go to the local sealife centre for my dissertation couple days a weeks, and I also have a volunteering position at a local animal park to gain some experience with my degree to make getting a job easier in future.

Thanks