Benefits when you have children who are in further education

wendyj90

I really need some help - I earn £53 per annum over getting any working tax credit. My three daughters are al at Uni, but with the current employment problems only one has been able to get a part-time job to assist her, though they sometimes send her home after a couple of hours so she earns hardly anything.

All three daughters live away during term time but then come home, ie now for the Easter holidays.

I have had financial problems so am paying off debts to a management company, with my mortgage and other bills I am left with about £30 per month for food, petrol basically everything. Now my daughters are home for the next few weeks I have no money to support them.

I have checked and it doesn't appear that I am entitle to any benefits. Does anybody know if they are entitled to anything. All three have Tuition Fee loans, Maintenance loans and they get a maintenance grant because of my low income - but this just covers each term they are away!

We are all very worried - so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Wendyj90

Indie_Kid

You can't get any benefits for your children who are in higher education.

viktory

Why would you need money to support them for two weeks?

Do they get loans/bursaries/grants? Can they not provide some money?

Indie_Kid

Loans are meant to last over the summer - hence less in final year and more for the last term than the first two.

wendyj90

It is strange that someone would ask why would I want to support them for two weeks - obviously they are very luck in that they don't need to eat. As I said. I have £30 to support myself. There is nothing left to feed three other adults. (Also, one is home for two weeks, one for three and one for four - this is the luck one who has managed to find a p/t job!)

Thank you though to the person who responded that I am not entitled to any benefits for them. That was one of my questions.

They are struggling with having to pay bills for rent, food, electricity etc, as we all know, with te grant they get. No - they are not at partying all the time because they cannot afford it, they would love to. I have to admit they are very good at buying very cheap food to live off, though quality is a bit suspect!

It basically looks like hard luck and strave - they should have gone on the dole and not into higher education.

My eldest has just told me that her Maintenance Grant and Maintenance Loan just pays her rent!

MrsBartolozzi

I don't think anyone was asking why you'd WANT to support your kids for two weeks. The question asked was why would you NEED to.
The student loan/maintenance thing is for the whole year including the summer holidays so there is an expectation that the students should be paying their way in some form during the holidays.
While I fully accept that the loan/grant/etc barely covers halls (my DS1 is off to uni in Sep and we've just applied for halls. He will have £30 left for books, lunches, travel etc for the whole year). We have just accepted that unless he gets a job he will struggle to get by. That's just a fact of life, sadly and why student overdrafts are at such good rates.

AnxiousMum

Wendy - congrats on having three daughters aspiring to get a great education and job prospects later in life

Do your daughters get the maintenance loan only? Does their various universities offer any bursaries to students from low income households? My son is off to Warwick (well he'd better be!) this year, and if we were low income, we were surprised at the extra £3K he would get - some in terms of additional grant money from student loans and another £1.5K or so from the university itself. Might want to check the individual university sites under funding to see if any of them have this type of bursary - though at Warwick I believe it's calculated along with the student loan information.

As you say, the student loan barely covers the cost of halls, let alone anything else.
MrsBartolozz - don't count on your son being able to find a job while at Uni - they can be very few and far between especially in towns where you have more than one university, a large university, or other colleges nearby.
Sending a son off to university with £30 in his pocket is certainly setting him up for a fall.

wendyj90

The trouble is, they can't get any work - what my daughters' have found is that local employers are taking on people who live locally all year round not just term time. My eldest was lucky in that she found her job before the whole unemployment situation became so bad - she is able to work in Winchester and then at home but because of swapping between the two sites she just gets whatever shifts are left over.

My daughters have tried to get their money to last but as you seem to be able to appreciate there is no money left to support themselves when they come home let alone when at Uni (my middle daughter pays out for rent, gas, electricity, water rates, tv/internet; for those who think she doesn't need the tv they do need the interenet and this comes as a package, travel getting to and from uni, she walks most of the time but would you be happy with your daughter walking home after a lecture finishes at 10pm) - overdrafts are maxed out to pay for books etc.

Oviously we are in a minority and most people don't have this problem, all I wanted to know was if anyone knew if we were entitled to some help. It just shows that I should have never gone to work full time and that my daughters should have never gone to University. We proably would have been raking it in if we were all unemployed!

(It actually looks like my youngest will not actually be coming home for Easter as she cannot afford the train fare. She has no money until her loan comes through again and currently has no food left.)

Bogof_Babe

There seem to be two separate problems going on here. Your daughters are struggling anyway it seems, and on top of that you are in financial straits yourself.

Your daughters are considered to be adults in their own right now, and it is not your responsibility to support them - that's what all the student loans etc. are meant for, plus any work they can get. They presumably can't be the only ones on their courses having to pay their own way because their parents aren't in a position to help out, so how do the others manage?

As regards your own situation, how much of your income is going on repaying your debts? You can't really expect the taxpayer to pick up your income shortfall to pay off your debts. Can you get a second job, or sell something? Have you any jewellery (gold is in high demand) that would raise a bit of cash to help you out over Easter?

Indie_Kid

Do student union not offer jobs?

AnxiousMum

Student Unions do offer jobs Sh1305 - but.......bring up any university at the moment, and click on what jobs are available - and basically you're going to be met with jobs that advertise for £32 per hour - but it's only a 15 minute interview in the psych faculty - so payment of about £8 - one time deal. I'm sure that OP's daughters are aware of these and will grab them when they can. My son tried for part time work while at uni for two years solid - not a thing, and it was clear to me looking on the job centre boards for where he was, and where we live - there was a huge difference in job availability - as we have no college/uni's around us that the students are all jumping for.

Have just looked at my son's halls of residence cost, and it is actually more for the year than his student maintenance loan will be.....with 40 contact hours per week on his course, and then personal study time on top of that, I would not expect him to find a part time job - as he simply would not have the time along with keeping up with his studies. Simple fact is - some courses allow the time, some don't - and the maintenance loans don't cover anywhere near the costs outside of tuition.

So yes, while many of you are saying that 'they're adults, loans are meant to last the whole year' etc., there's often alot more about it that you don't know unless you're in the situation of putting a child through uni yourself.