Any Student Loan experts in?

The_Grouch

Hey everyone. I am hoping someone can help me out with my entitlement, its quite a complicated situation I am in so here goes:

I am hoping to this year start a 3 year BSc Hons degree, I will be 29 when I start, and living with my Dad.

I have already spent 3 years at uni between 2003 and 2006 and graduated with an 'ordinary' degree. I have had this confirmed that this does NOT class as an ELQ as far as Student Finance are concerened, although some universities do class it as such and try to charge increased fees.

I was expecting to get living cost loan only for the first 2 years, with full support for the final year under the '+1' rules, giving me £3,838 for the first year, most of which will pay my fees, leaving me about £400 towards living costs

Today I got my assessment letter stating I will get £4745.00 per year made up from £3559 + £1186 'income assessed'. I have no idea where this figure comes from! At first I thought maybe they had me down as living away from home, but that figure should be £4950.00 per year?

Any help appreciated, I should probably ring them up, but I've tried this in the past and seem to get a different answer from everyone I speak to, and well, they are offering me more than I expected.....

abby1234519

The_Grouch wrote: »

Hey everyone. I am hoping someone can help me out with my entitlement, its quite a complicated situation I am in so here goes:

I am hoping to this year start a 3 year BSc Hons degree, I will be 29 when I start, and living with my Dad.

I have already spent 3 years at uni between 2003 and 2006 and graduated with an 'ordinary' degree. I have had this confirmed that this does NOT class as an ELQ as far as Student Finance are concerened, although some universities do class it as such and try to charge increased fees.

I was expecting to get living cost loan only for the first 2 years, with full support for the final year under the '+1' rules, giving me £3,838 for the first year, most of which will pay my fees, leaving me about £400 towards living costs

Today I got my assessment letter stating I will get £4745.00 per year made up from £3559 + £1186 'income assessed'. I have no idea where this figure comes from! At first I thought maybe they had me down as living away from home, but that figure should be £4950.00 per year?

Any help appreciated, I should probably ring them up, but I've tried this in the past and seem to get a different answer from everyone I speak to, and well, they are offering me more than I expected.....

£4950 is the maximum student loan you can get. It consists of a non income assessed loan which is £3564 (I think) and then the other part is based on your income. So they have assessed the remaining part of the loan on your income.

I'll get the whole £4950 because I have no income and will be a single parent next year. But if I did have an income it might be lower

The_Grouch

Cheers for the reply. I rang them today and they seem sure that this is correct. I still can't make the figures add up, but what the hey. :T

Taiko

Actually, I'm going to break this down and state it's wrong.

Their assessment treats you as starting the course in September 2006. The regulations do not permit this, and you should be classed as a 2011 cohort student, and be entitled to the full £4950.

The_Grouch

Taiko wrote: »

Actually, I'm going to break this down and state it's wrong.

Their assessment treats you as starting the course in September 2006. The regulations do not permit this, and you should be classed as a 2011 cohort student, and be entitled to the full £4950.

Thanks for the reply. £4950 is the amount I would expect to receive if I lived away from home, I'm reluctant to push the issue with them much more incase they knock me right down to the £3850 'living at home' rate! Unless anyone can confirm that being over 25 means living at home doesn't matter? They hinted at this on the phone, but I can't see it written down anywhere and again I was reluctant to push it...

Taiko

From a technical viewpoint, yes it should be parental home. However, I always adjusted this to elsewhere for independent students. There's nothing in the regulations to state this though.

abby1234519

The_Grouch wrote: »

Thanks for the reply. £4950 is the amount I would expect to receive if I lived away from home, I'm reluctant to push the issue with them much more incase they knock me right down to the £3850 'living at home' rate! Unless anyone can confirm that being over 25 means living at home doesn't matter? They hinted at this on the phone, but I can't see it written down anywhere and again I was reluctant to push it...

My understanding when I last spoke to Student Finance was that living at home is only really taken into consideration when you are younger than 25...I could be wrong so don't hold me to that.

I think the wording was "Once you get to over 25 we assume you and an independent adult paying full rent"

So that was what I got from that sentence!

Doesn't apply to me anyway as I am not over 25!

Taiko

As I say, I always allowed it, however there's nothing in the regulations to say they must.

DreamerV

Interesting situation, similar to mine. I am 27, have just gone back to uni. Went to uni but left in 2005 (health issues), and was awarded an ordinary degree. It didn't count for much, and I ended up in a government call centre for 2.5 yrs. Decided to go back to uni but luckily I'd built up 15000 of savings over 3 years of work in total (I'm careful with money). Because of the ordinary degree I don't really want, I won't get help with fees at all, and if I didn't have it, the uni would give me a £5000 non-repayable grant. However, what I get now is a loan for living costs and that is it. It is £5035, the full amount from SAAS because my income was less than £22000 last year. I would have thought the full loan amounts would be similar across Scotland and England...I thought most give around £5000 as the max loan amount.

The_Grouch

DreamerV wrote: »

Interesting situation, similar to mine. I am 27, have just gone back to uni. Went to uni but left in 2005 (health issues), and was awarded an ordinary degree. It didn't count for much, and I ended up in a government call centre for 2.5 yrs. Decided to go back to uni but luckily I'd built up 15000 of savings over 3 years of work in total (I'm careful with money). Because of the ordinary degree I don't really want, I won't get help with fees at all, and if I didn't have it, the uni would give me a £5000 non-repayable grant. However, what I get now is a loan for living costs and that is it. It is £5035, the full amount from SAAS because my income was less than £22000 last year. I would have thought the full loan amounts would be similar across Scotland and England...I thought most give around £5000 as the max loan amount.

Yes I see your situation is very similar! Wasn't expecting that, nice to know I'm not the only person going through this! As far as I understand, me having got an ordinary degree (which I also didn't / don't want) makes no difference, its the fact that I've already spent 3 years at uni means my funding is reduced.

You embarrass me with your money saving ability too, I've been living with my Dad for 5 years since leaving Uni and will be lucky to have half that amount by the time I start! Out of interest, what Uni are you at and what course?

MrsManda

I think the reason funding gets reduced for people who have studied at university for a number of years and either got an 'ordinary degree' or didn't complete their studies at all is to stop people staying at university indefinitely, swapping between courses and still getting funding from the tax payer when there's no chance they'll repay the money.
I have friends who went through university when you still got bursaries and there were no fees, who stayed in university for 8-10 years without ever actually completing a degree.