Student finances and benefits

cymrubaby

Sorry for all the questions but I still have to try and work some things out and at present I am completely clueless when it comes to students finance and certain benefits.

Right here goes, I've basically qualified for full help wth regards to student loans, maintenance loans and grants as well as a Parents Learning Allowance and Adult Dependants Grant. My husband was made redundant in March and decided not to look for work straight away so that he could take over the care of our children whilst I am in full-time education. I applied for Income Support in March and also housing and council tax benefits which we now receive. I also get Carer's Allowance because our 4 year old son is severely disabled.

Before I start uni in September my husband is going to apply for the Carer's Allowance while I relinquish mine because I will be a student and no longer entitled to claim it. My husband will also put in a claim for IS because he will be our son's carer and cannot apply for JSA due to this. I know that IS will take into account my student finance as income. I looked on the directgov website and found this;

Who may be able to claim income-related benefits as a student?


Full-time students

Although most full-time higher education students are not entitled to income-related benefits, certain groups may be able to make a claim.
The full rules are listed in the Income Support and Housing Benefit regulations. But as a general guide, you may be able to claim income-related benefits if you:

• are a lone parent
• have a partner who is also a student - and one or both of you are responsible for a child
• have a disability, and qualify for the disability premium or severe disability premium

And there are certain other groups who may be eligible - for example, people who have been treated as incapable of work for a continuous period of at least 28 weeks.
If you have a partner who is not a student and they’re eligible for any income-related benefits, your partner can claim on behalf of you both.

Now, my husband has enrolled to do two evening courses from September in our local college. He wants to keep learning and gaining skills because he knows that just staying at home for a few years (regardless that he will be a carer) won't look good to any potential employer when he tries to go back into work once I finish my degree. He will be a part-time student and won't be applying for any funding except for the ILA fee voucher of £200 to help pay for his courses. Will he still be eligible to apply for IS?

It's really very confusing and I'm not sure who I should phone to ask about all this. Do I call DWP? JobcentrePlus? I really don't have a clue.

All I know is that I will be a full-time degree student, my husband will be a part-time further education student and we have four children - one of whom my husband will become the carer of. Neither of us is working at the moment (but hopefully both of us will be at the end of all this).

Thanks.

student_advisor

if your partner is only studying part-time, then he's not classed as a student for benefit purposes so not probs with CA or IS.

emidee

Hi Cymrubaby,

I'm not 100% sure what you were asking for in your post so I'm sorry if this isn't appropiate. I'm in a similar position to you atm, & thought you might find these links useful:

This is a link to HMRC (Tax Credits), detailing which types of student income are taken into account for Tax Credit assessment purposes (see 'Adult Dependants' Grant' & 'What not to include' paragraphs in particular):
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/taxcredits/start/claiming/income-hours/other-income.htm

This one is the NUS website - click on the 'find an article' drop down box to browse the info. This site contained useful info that I hadn't found elsewhere:
http://www.nus.org.uk/en/Student-Life/Money-And-Funding/

My understanding is that your husband (being a p/t student) should definately be able to claim any of the means-tested benefits on behalf of you both - your FT student status shouldn't matter, except of course that they will take certain parts of your student income into account (see the following link for which ones):
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/BenefitsTaxCreditsAndOtherSupport/On_a_low_income/DG_070816

Try to find out from Student Finance England if you would be eligible for the Special Support Grant instead of the Maintenance Grant - the former is disregarded for benefit calculations, whereas the latter isn't. Also the Student loan isn't reduced when claimed in conjunction with the SSG - with the Maintenance grant the student loan is reduced by approximately £1500. The 2 grants (SSG & MG) are worth the same amount, & they cannot both be claimed.
I've read that if you can claim Income Support then you may be eligilbe for the SSG, so it's worth finding out 'from the horses mouth'. A little bit of info about both, here:
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/EducationAndLearning/UniversityAndHigherEducation/StudentFinance/Applyingforthefirsttime/DG_171557

A note about Income Support - new claims are no longer allowed for this, as it's been replaced by Employment & Support Allowance. Current claimants can go on recieving IS, but as your husband will be a new claimant then he'll have to claim ESA instead.

If you pay for childcare for any of your children & currently recieve the Childcare Element of Working Tax credits, you may be better off claiming the Student's Childcare grant instead - as it pays up to 85% of childcare costs, as opposed to the Childcare Element of WTC which only pays up to 80%.
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/EducationAndLearning/UniversityAndHigherEducation/StudentFinance/Extrahelp/DG_171503

Lastly, as your situation is a complex one, is it possible for you to speak to a CAB representative, or somebody knowledgable from your Uni's Student Support Department? The whole student finance / benefits system is a nightmare - especially when mixed together - & it really needs experienced, professional advice to comment on it properly (not even the staff of the organisations involved get it right sometimes! :eek:).

Good luck for September & hope you manage to sort it all out.
Emily xx



Edit: Very sorry, really should have read the date on this post before replying! Hope you got it all sorted in the end x.

Oldernotwiser

This thread is nearly a year old.

PH1LL

Better late than never, eh?!