Can someone help me work out Student Support for Mature Student Parents (Scotland)?

oompahloompah

Hi Everyone

Just thinking of the future; DH and I are both self employed just now but (like almost everyone I speak to or hear from!) things are tight and getting worse by the week. I am trying to think ahead to what we will do should things get to the point of no return, but I am finding difficulty in getting straight calculations from the various websites.

I would be studying a paid-for 2 year full time Masters which will provide a non-means tested NHS bursary.

DH would be a full time undergraduate student (he has never studied in Higher Education) for 4 years. Fees would be paid by SAAS.

We live in Scotland and will be studying here too.

Both of us are (a lot!) over 25. We have a mortgage on our home (so no rent to pay) and pay full Council Tax. We get some Child Tax Credit at the moment for our younger 2, and of course Child Benefit. We don't get Working Tax Credit or any other benefits (disability and so on).

We have 3 DSs. The eldest is away from home during term time at University (though still in Scotland) - he gets full bursary/loan from SAAS as our income is low.

From Autumn 2012 DS2 will be in his final year of school before starting Uni (hopefully!), again in Scotland, from 2013. He currently gets the Educational Maintenance Allowance of £30/week.

DS3 is also at High School and will be leaving school to go to Uni in 2015 (by which time I will be finished studying and hopefully working full time but DH will still be studying).

Currently our only income is the money from the self employment but obviously we wouldn't have that if the business folded. We have a bit of savings but we are using these to cover living expenses and bills etc while the business is waiting for customers to pay :mad: and so we can't guarantee we will always have these! In any case it is less than two thousand pounds so I don't even know if this would be taken into account.

I am just trying to work out if it is financially viable for us both to go back to education full time as business prospects are not great and getting full time work at the moment is increasingly difficult around here (I have been trying for over a year on top of being self employed but have only had a couple of temporary jobs, nothing permanent).

We would hope to get some sort of part time work while studying but while DHs timetable would probably allow for this, the course I would be taking would be very intensive so it is unlikely I would be able to, except perhaps agency work during the holidays.

I can calculate the grant/loan/bursary we would be entitled to on our own, but what I can't determine is how much (if anything) we would get on top of this for our 2 DSs still living at home?

Also would we be eligible for full Council Tax exemption even though I would be a Masters student, or is it only undergrads who are exempt?

Would we be entitled to Employment Support Allowance or something similar during the summer break if we couldn't find work?

Sorry for the long post, I thought it best to give all the circumstances as I know the slightest bit of information can make a huge difference.

We need to make our decision reasonably soon as the UCAS deadline is January.

Thanks everyone!!

Oompah x

melancholly

this is all a bit complicated for me - also i'm not good on the scottish system. i think the income from your business is important as that will count as household income but the max student loan is about £4.5K, which i think you'd be entitled to as £2K isn't going to put you over any threshold, even if it's combined with a full bursary.

the council tax exemption counts for all students as long as they're full time. you normally can't get ESA/JSA as a student since the loan is meant to cover the gap (which is why it's lower in the final year).

hopefully someone (Taiko or Poolie?!) will see this thread and give some specific advice.

Oldernotwiser

melancholly wrote: »

this is all a bit complicated for me - also i'm not good on the scottish system. .

Ditto.....

alyth

I'm a mature student studying in Scotland, however I'm single but I can only offer advice from my own situation.

I'm sure you would get council tax exemption - and you shouldn't pay it even during the summer months as you're still classed as a student - I've queried this numerous times with my local authority but I don't pay it whilst I'm still studying.

Your husband would get the full student loan which I think is about £5K a year. Depending on how old he is, and I can't remember whether the age is 25 or 35, you get an additional £100 a month from SAAS for being a mature student - this is a bursary and I had never heard of it until the SAAS advisor told me about it.

I've no idea what CTC or ESA is in your post I'm afraid, but I'm fairly sure students cannot sign on for benefits during the summer, do you mean getting things like jobseekers' allowance? Your bet bet is to take a part time job and increase the hours during the summer, that's what my friends and I do, and we're all mature students - one works 5-11 am doing picking for home shopping in a supermarket, another works in a bar, it's not ideal but it pays the bills.

But one point I would make, don't think that having a degree will increase your chances of getting employment. I'll be 44 when I graduate and have been told by my employers (a supermarket) that I would be far to old to be considered for a graduate scheme - not that I want to do that, it was a comment made in passing. You have to I feel increase your workability being a mature graduate much more than someone younger I feel, so depending on what field you and your husband want to work in you may have to do voluntary work, to run alongside your degree to enhance youself and make you more marketable to employers.

oompahloompah

Thanks everyone!

Just to clarify a couple of points from my OP - CTC is child tax credit and ESA is employment support allowance. Sorry about the abbreviations.

I knew we wouldn't be eligible for Job Seekers as we would be returning to education after the holidays, but what I didn't know was, with us still having 2 dependant children at home, if we would be able to claim ESA if we were unsuccessful in getting jobs.

Great news about the Council Tax!

The course I would be doing would be a conversion course to Nursing for graduates, it is 2 years full time and is very intensive, 35-40 hours/week on placement plus coursework, study, assignments and so on, so it is strongly recommended by those who run the course that students don't take on additional work unless it is during the 7 weeks summer break - I think this is why there is a non-means tested bursary given to all the students. However DH should be able to pick up some part time work to fit around his course - supermarket and so on.

Thanks Alyth for your points on working after graduation, it is definitely something to consider in all of this. Certainly for me to work in nursing I need to do the conversion course, but whether there will be available jobs in 3 years when I finish is anyone's guess. As for DH, his course would not be purely for the purpose of gaining work at the end of it (although of course he will need to work somewhere!!) but really we are just trying to decide, because he didn't get the chance for various reasons to go to further study after leaving school which he has always regretted, if he gets the opportunity to do it now (he is 42) and passes it up will he regret it even more?

There is a lot to think about, obviously we still have 2 dependent kids and a mortgage and so on, so don't want to make any rash decisions that leaves us struggling even more financially, but we don't want to face a life on the dole either.

Thank you so much again to everyone - as usual you are all wonderful
xx