Indepent students' question

ThinkingOfLinking

I've sent in evidence of my independent student status, but on another forum (thestudentroom), someone's said, this must prove your income's been over 6,500 a year in that period; mine's never been because I've been in and out of casual work and on benefits. Is this true or not, please as I am really worried now; I'm currently nowhere nearer an offer of finance and have no means of supporting myself when I start uni (am on contribution based benefits and working very part time!) while SFE sort themselves out!!

Oldernotwiser

If you've supported yourself by claiming benefits then this is acceptable for independent student status.

Taiko

Indeed. It's also worth noting that the regulations, which are what SFE have to work to, do not state an amount. They are using a figure of £7500 as enough (tested them on this), however they should be asking for evidence of how a student was self-supporting and not just turning them down if the income was below this amount.

ThinkingOfLinking

Taiko wrote: »

Indeed. It's also worth noting that the regulations, which are what SFE have to work to, do not state an amount. They are using a figure of £7500 as enough (tested them on this), however they should be asking for evidence of how a student was self-supporting and not just turning them down if the income was below this amount.

Thanks; I didn't see this figure on their website; I found it via thestudentrooms forums.

Nonetheless, I've warned my (estranged) father he may need to help me out (eg provide his own evidence) if things don't go well when my evidence is finally processed; they're only up to May 6 from what I hear.

My own evidence was from the HMRC, detailing all incomes from the last few years, including benefits and wages. I just panicked when I got an email asking for further evidence of "student eligibility" on top of the evidence they'd already asked for and received.

Panicking I won't get money on time...