Part Time Student.What Benefits?

dibdabable

bodmil wrote: »

When I was at uni one module was only a few hours a week. If she's just re-taking the one module it should leave her heaps of time free to get a part time or even full time shift job. If she's suffering from depression only going to uni a few hours a week could make life really tough with so little to keep her occupied, a job could really help that and her financial troubles? It could also make the transition after uni a lot easier too.

You're absolutely right, time to think too much is definetly not what she needs. She's already planning voluntary work whilst she waits to see if she can find work.
She's not afraid to work even though she knows she has some difficluties, but we need to know if in the interim period she is eligible to claim given her circumstances ie. being part time, being unwell and possible having no income.
Thanks for your insight.

dibdabable

skater_kat wrote: »

i'm part time postgrad and on jsa. yes, minimal study time and can be done at any time of week, so very much available for work. lots of evidence suggests that being in employment speeds recovery, particulary for depression so my advice would be to urge your daughter to seek work, even if part time. are you able to support her financially in any way?
i would advise her to check her student status with registry and get a confirmation letter from them. even though her attendance will be PT, she may be marked at registry as FT status. this will be crucial benefits-wise. as if she is indeed part time, she *should* be able to claim HB, if she is not eligible for student finance (which you will need to prove). not sure if any sp;ecific HB rules on student halls though, sorry.
she should go an visit her student advice service at her uni, take advantage of the summer break meaning she will have much more attention from them as opposed to in a month when all the new students get flustered.

Excellent advice, thankyou. You'r eabsolutely right about work etc being really good for recovery and she'd very aware that having too much time on her hands would not be good, as I've said above she hopes to do voluntary work if she can't get a job straight away.
We can support her with small things but we have no way of paying her rent or anything like that. She will be living out and renting privately, so we'll be at the mercy of the Landlord as to whether he accepts people on HB.

abby1234519

dibdabable wrote: »

Thanks for sharinfg your experience. Up to now she has had two years of uni and therefore 2 years of funding.She's actually passed everything up to now, so if she does fail this one exam it would mean most likely that she'd only have about one session a week at Uni from Sept to Jan, then she'd wait until June to take the exam again.

Obviously after Jan it's more clear cut she'll be able to clam or find a job as she won't be a student. The other problem is her contract with a letting agent who may or may not accept students on Housing Benefit.

In that case she still has a "spare" year of funding.
She NEEDS to clarify with the university as to what her student status will be. They may say she can be enrolled full time still and so student finance wold then give her an extra year of funding. It doesn't matter as to whether you are only in for an hour a week, if the university keep her enrolled full time then she will get this.

For instance....university year just gone. I was enrolled from September to just finished. Yet I didn't attend anything till February because I had already passed 1st semester so I didn't need to repeat it (as in I had passed it in the previous academic year). So I worked full time October to January. Whilst recieving full student funding.

dibdabable

abby1234519 wrote: »

In that case she still has a "spare" year of funding.
She NEEDS to clarify with the university as to what her student status will be. They may say she can be enrolled full time still and so student finance wold then give her an extra year of funding. It doesn't matter as to whether you are only in for an hour a week, if the university keep her enrolled full time then she will get this.

Thanks.Well that would certainly be the answer to all her difficulties. Can you remember whose decision it was that your status was held at Full Time Student as this will be imperative when we contact her Uni after her results? Was it down to the Uni as a whole or the individual School, just so we know who to speak to and save time.

I know Student Finance give funding for the length of your course,plus one year, so that would be fine.

dibdabable

Bumping this in case there are any other students with personal experience of this.:)