FURTHER Education Funding

PiscesIsis

I've been offered a place to study on am Art and Design BTEC diploma, starting in September. Which is wonderful!:)
The problem is that I will lose out on benefits as it's a full-time further education course.
I'm a single parent and my youngest child is 11, which means I now claim jobseekers instead of income support.
I know I should be able to claim ALG, £30 a week for travel and course materials.
Does anyone know of any grant or scholarship that I could apply for to cover personal living expenses and the registration fee?
I will of course be looking for part time work but with the job market as it is, that's going to be very difficult.

Indie_Kid

Have you contacted the college about any grants? There is the learner support fund.

Because you're a full-time student, you don't pay council tax. Anyone you live with (who isn't a student) gets a 25% discount. You may need a certificate from college for this.

PiscesIsis

Thanks for replying Sh1305
I've been trying to get in touch with the student services all afternoon. They must be a bit busy cause they are not answering the phone.
I'm hoping to make an appointment with their funding advisor.

PiscesIsis

Hi again.

I've been in touch with the student funding advisor, the CAB and sent an email to my local MP.
No one knows of anything that will help....Well the MP didn't reply yet (maybe he just thinks i'm a scrounger anyway).

I'd hate to give up my dreams for the sake of one year being skint but I've got to be able to feed the kids and pay the bills.

Dont know what to do.

student_advisor

there isn't any statutory funding to help with your day-to-day living costs if your course is over 16 hours per week, though you are entitled to claim housing benefit if you are renting

realistically, you would need some part-time work to cover your living costs as you can't get JSA for a full-time course (over 16 hours) and your youngest is too old for you to get IS, as you have said

the only help available from the college would be towards childcare, travel and equipment costs at most

you can use the funding directory to search for charitable funding, though there will be little for living expenses

PiscesIsis

Hiya Student Advisor

Thanks for answering,

The answer is to get part-time work, I've been trying for months with no luck, I will just have to keep at it.
I am concerned that it will take me away from being with my kids and might make homework difficult. But luckily the weekly hours at college get less with each term (though of course your expected to do more at home).

It's very hard to keep positive but I really really do want to see this through.


Oh yeah, My MP replied today, he said :-
"I am not aware of any immediate solution to your problem but I will retain your details and see if I can find something to assist you"

KTSaver_2

Hi there PiscesIsis, how many hours a week will you actually be studying?

The reason I ask this is that last year I returned to education (I also have a child and am a single parent and on benefits) and found that financially I was going to be financially alot worse off, and decided to see if I had any other options.

After speaking to my student advisor, I was informed that if I was classed as "Infill" that I was basically classed as part time for a full time course, (although I attended classes with the rest of the class as usual) and therefore could have my fees paid through fee waiver, stay on benefits and apply to my institution for hardship to cover my travel expenses. Essentially this was the answer to my prayers, it meant I did not lose out financially and managed to complete all the course work with attending only 16 hours a week.

It may be different in your case as you are applying to University, and I was only doing an HND Course, but its certainly worth asking about.

I did however have to have confirmation from the college that I was not attending over 16 hours a week, and confirmation from funding bodies that I had not and would not be recieving the usual financial assistance.

I hope this is helpful to you

Oldernotwiser

KTSaver wrote: »

Hi there PiscesIsis, how many hours a week will you actually be studying?

The reason I ask this is that last year I returned to education (I also have a child and am a single parent and on benefits) and found that financially I was going to be financially alot worse off, and decided to see if I had any other options.

After speaking to my student advisor, I was informed that if I was classed as "Infill" that I was basically classed as part time for a full time course, (although I attended classes with the rest of the class as usual) and therefore could have my fees paid through fee waiver, stay on benefits and apply to my institution for hardship to cover my travel expenses. Essentially this was the answer to my prayers, it meant I did not lose out financially and managed to complete all the course work with attending only 16 hours a week.

It may be different in your case as you are applying to University, and I was only doing an HND Course, but its certainly worth asking about.

I did however have to have confirmation from the college that I was not attending over 16 hours a week, and confirmation from funding bodies that I had not and would not be recieving the usual financial assistance.

I hope this is helpful to you

The OP is applying for an FE course not HE.

From your point of view you would have been better off doing it as a full time course and using the full HE funding package.