Low joint income benefits/son at Uni no grant

fuzz1

My wife & I have a joint income less than 20k gross. My 19 year old son has just moved into student accomodation to start his first year at uni. we have a 15 year old son living at home, & at present get a small amount of Child Tax Credit and Child Benefit. We have a small amount of savings, which are diminishing rapidly as my sons' uni grant has not been sorted out yet, so we are having to pay for his accomdation etc; from our savings.

Does anyone know if we are entitled to any benefits, as I have never been in this situation before, & don't know how or where to start.

sp1987

The student loans etc seem delayed this year. If your son has a student account he should have an interest free overdraft he can use to cover himself until his funds arrive to pay it back? My overdraft was about £1250 in year 1 (natwest). He will have enough money through to cover him when it does arrive, especially as your household income is low....he will qualify for all the grants in addition to loans that most students with higher income families don't get. Just a waiting game, sadly!

hippy-chicy

He may be entitled to claim additional help from the unversity. There are a number of hardship grants etc avaliable ( as i only found out in my final yea).
It might be wise for him to enquire about these as well.

[Deleted User]

it appears that over 120,000 students applied very late for grants(less than 4 weeks before uni started),as above most unis are helping out either with temp loans ir delaying halls payments.
There will be NO additional benefits to cover this delay i`m afraid

dmg24

fuzz1, it would be worth checking www.entitledto.co.uk to ensure that you are getting your full benefit entitlement.

Long time no see woodbine!

Zeldazog

If he's got confirmation of his application, then will the university not delay his fees for halls?

It's a nationwide problem, so I can't see them kicking all students out through problems that are known not to be their own.

bestpud

You shouldn't need to pay his accommodation fees.

Unis know there is a problem and most are offering support by delaying accommodation fees and also short term loans until the finance comes through.

Get him to contact them, or check out the uni website as it should say on there.

I agree you should also check your tax credits are correct.

ETA: I have just googled this and the first three uni websites I clicked on have a specific page about delayed fees and offering support/advice...