Student grants - I need help!!

chaellin12

Hi Folks

What a fantastic website and forum!! As you can tell i'm new to this forum. My son is hoping to go to uni this year and we have been looking at finance and how best to go about it. Can anyone tell me, regarding students grant - I assume it is means tested? Part of what we have read states that you enter your yearly earned income. My husband took early retirement from his job, but has now got another job. Do we declare his pension as 'earned income' or is it on our wages alone?

I would appreciate any help with this

pandora205

Welcome to MSE chaellin - You are in the right place for advice on this site.

You are quite late applying for student finance for this year (if you mean for September). It involves quite a long form to assess you son's entitlement and your contribution. This includes both the loan and grant elements.

Everything you need to know is on the directgov site here:
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/EducationAndLearning/UniversityAndHigherEducation/StudentFinance/index.htm

Be prepared for a long session filling it all in. In addition to this, some colleges and universities offer their own bursaries, such as for those in the local area or neighbouring authorities, so it is worth checking that out too.

Good luck with it all.

Pandora

student_advisor

Both you and your husband will need to provide your income for the 07-08 tax year. If this is below £25k, you do not need to do anything else. If it was more than £25k, you can then request to be assessed on your current year income (if this at least 15% lower).

Your son also needs to apply as soon as possible and you should all use the online application process if possible as it will be quicker.

jane34

we are having the same probs :-(

we applied for student grant as my husband lost his job 8 months ago and is on job seekers.
got the form from student finiance to get job centre to sign proving our income that was 5 months ago and after many phone calls they still have not signed it,was told have not got to it yet, 6 weeks ago was told it was on there system now and have to wait till its done, that was 6 weeks ago and still not recived it 'how long does it just take to stamp a form?' in the mean time student finance keep asking for forms so they can process his application.
they have made things so arward, he is now wondering whether to stay another year in college doing any subject rather than be unemployed doing nothing.
cant belive how long its taken JC. thought by sending in so early he would be sorted by now, now he not sure whats going to happen.

chaellin12

Many thanks for the advise - We know we are late applying but typical of our son he has just recently decided that he wants to go to uni. Student Advisor - can you tell me would the household income include a works pension. Also we are from N Ireland and my son is applying to an English uni - would that make any difference?

mumps

jane34 wrote: »

we are having the same probs :-(

we applied for student grant as my husband lost his job 8 months ago and his onjob seekers.
got the form from student finiance to get job centre to sign proving our income that was 5 months ago and after many phone calls they still have not signed it,was told have not got to it yet, 6 weeks ago was told it was on there system now and have to wait till its done, that was 6 weeks ago and still not recived it 'how long does it just take to stamp a form?' in the mean time student finance keep asking for forms so they can process his application.
they have made things so arward, he is now wondering whether to stay another year in college doing any subject rather than be unemployed doing nothing.
cant belive how long its taken JC. thought by sending in so early he would be sorted by now, now he not sure whats going to happen.

We had to get this done last year, they were quick with us but the local job centre said if there was a problem we could make an appointment to go in and they would do the form for him while he waited. Because he is disabled and has severe mobility problems we decided to send it off and as I said ours was done quickly. Can you go into your local Job Centre and see if they will help?

jane34

Hi Mumps
i recive severe disablement for mobility problems , and get my money paided from Basilindon JC which is about 100 miles from where i live, and i asked if i could get my husband to bring it to another JC which is 5 miles near our home to be signed as we have been waiting so long, ' at the time 2 months and i asked for another form from Student finiance hoping we could do that, but was told that they would have to send the form to Basilindon as thats where my money is sent from, and that form would be at the bottom of pile as they are going thro them.
could not understand why we could not use any other JC as they all have details of what i get , and now my husband is on JS and they all work for the same people 'goverment'
just frustrating , its if tho they are holding people back so they dont have to give grants.

Lokolo

Also if household income is above £60k theres no point in applying for income assessed....

student_advisor

chaellin12 wrote: »

Many thanks for the advise - We know we are late applying but typical of our son he has just recently decided that he wants to go to uni. Student Advisor - can you tell me would the household income include a works pension. Also we are from N Ireland and my son is applying to an English uni - would that make any difference?

Your son (and you) will need to apply online at www.studentfinanceni.co.uk

Everything is broadly the same as for English students and it doesn't matter which country of the UK & NI he chooses to study in.

You need to declare income from all sources including any money you (or your husband) receive from state or private pensions and also any taxable income from savings and investments (i.e. gross interest). The list of possible incomes is quite long. You will also need to provide proof of any income you declare.

And as Lokolo said, it'd not worth you doing the income assessment if your combined income is above around £60k.

mumps

jane34 wrote: »

Hi Mumps
i recive severe disablement for mobility problems , and get my money paided from Basilindon JC which is about 100 miles from where i live, and i asked if i could get my husband to bring it to another JC which is 5 miles near our home to be signed as we have been waiting so long, ' at the time 2 months and i asked for another form from Student finiance hoping we could do that, but was told that they would have to send the form to Basilindon as thats where my money is sent from, and that form would be at the bottom of pile as they are going thro them.
could not understand why we could not use any other JC as they all have details of what i get , and now my husband is on JS and they all work for the same people 'goverment'
just frustrating , its if tho they are holding people back so they dont have to give grants.

What a pain, I guess we were lucky. Hope you get it all sorted.

jane34

after 5 months waiting for Job Centre to sign application form, was told yesterday that they have never recived form and need to send another one, i told them i have been ringing up all the time and 3 months to open a letter is a long time to wait and i was told that it was on your system now on the 2nd june and you'd be sending it back to me and now after 8 weeks you say you never recived it, so now we have to ask student finance for another form and resend to job centre again. :-(