12/13 loan less than 11/12

Shelldean

My DD is due to start her second yr in Uni in Sept 12.
We've applied for her loan/grant and she's got the forms through.
However despite our income not changing her grant part has gone up but her loan part has gone down. Is this normal? I thought both would've gone up slightly??

And does anyone know what the maximum grant available is?

I ask as if she get maximum grant she qualifies for a small bursary and every little helps.

Thanks in advance.

Derivative

Shelldean wrote: »

My DD is due to start her second yr in Uni in Sept 12.
We've applied for her loan/grant and she's got the forms through.
However despite our income not changing her grant part has gone up but her loan part has gone down. Is this normal? I thought both would've gone up slightly??

And does anyone know what the maximum grant available is?

I ask as if she get maximum grant she qualifies for a small bursary and every little helps.

Thanks in advance.

Same here. Grant is up about thirty quid a term, loan down £10 or so.

Maximum grant is roughly £3000pa outside of London. Can't check the figures from here.

devildog

Maximum grant for 11/12 was 2906 and I believe for students already studying it remains at that level. For new students starting 12/13 the grant will be in the region of £3250.
The more a grant entitlement rises, the less loan a student will be able to get.
If you hunt around on the Student Finance site it will tell you how they do the calculations and you will be able to work it out yourself and check all is right. I think it is something like for every £5 of income between £25-£32 k the grant will be reduced by £1, and then further reduced by another £1 for every £15.17 for all income over £34K.

Shelldean

Devildog

thanks for replying. Thats the confusion when we do it on the online calculator we get a MUCH higher figure??? SF said it's because thats for 'new' students not returning.
I knew from last yr that the more grant you're entitled to the less loan. Which is fine as she doesn't need to pay the grant back.

We ( her stepdad and I) have given our incomes as this means she's entilted to more,and our income is WAY below 25 K, so she's entitled to the full whack.

If we use the online calculator and input our income plus her uni it gives us figures of... £6050 Loan & £3250 Grant. However when logged into her a/c £5542 Loan & £2984 grant. Both also mention tution fee loan.

Also we have twins who are NOW remaining in school, when we filled the forms in they was leaving, does anyone know if it effects how much she will recieve? SF have given us differing answers.

edited to add she's studying in Twickenham ( which presume is classed as London) So what's the maximum grant for London?

devildog

I have never used the loans calculator so I can't comment on it
If your income is below £25 k then obviously you will be entitled to the full whack.
Could it be that details have been provided as a new student and not a current student? That could explain why you are getting a grant entitlement of £3250 grant (which is what I believe new students starting for the first time Sep 12 will be entitled to)?
Tuition fee loan should be mentioned if applied for-is it for around £3,250 or at the new higher rates? If the new higher rate then I would guess that the issue is that they are treating her as a student starting for the first time this September.

Re the twins- I believe the correct thing to do is to write in notifying of a change of circumstances in that you have two others who will now be remaining at school(6th form/A levels)They will want to know the name of the school they will be attending.
Again as far as I am aware they will then deduct £1130 x 2 (twins) from your total income and recalculate your daughters entitlement with the lower income figure. However if she is already entitled to the maximum loan/grant the figure they award may not change(not 100 % sure though)

I don't know re financial bits for London, I would assume that it will be the same as last year(for a continuing student)
If I have got anything wrong here, hopefully Taiko will be along to correct

Shelldean

Poxy system is about as clear as mud and each time we call their advisors give differing answers!!

we've tried to amend our supporting bit, however it has to be done on their form. And of course they sent the wrong one out. They sent me a loan application. Her stepdad did get the correct form, both took almost two weeks to come through. I will be cadlling them tomorrow to sort this issue.
Was jut hoping someone on here could shed some light so I can be certain of the facts, simply because different people give different answers when questioned.

her tution fee loan is 3465 which is what her course will be I believe.

devildog

It sounds like they have got her as a continuing student then.
Found this link which I think is the right one-gives you entitlements for London etc

http://www.direct.gov.uk/prod_consum_dg/groups/dg_digitalassets/@dg/@en/@educ/documents/digitalasset/dg_200473.pdf

Re change of circumstances-I have just had to do one (although not so much change of circumstances but an error I made on the form) which equates to the same thing really.
I have simply wrote a letter in detailing the error and giving them the correct info.

MusicalLawyer

Maximum Grant for Continuing students is £2984 this year.

No idea on the loan as mine is different because my course is all year long, so I get more. However it is down by around £700 on last year. Can't help on that bit!

Is she in a 2 or 3 year course? According to a student finance adviser you get less in your final year anyway.

devildog

Thanks for the correction on grant figure Kelly.Did see it on link I added but forgot to amend what I said
Shelldean, bearing in mind the grant figure(as correctly supplied by Kelly)it sounds as if the figures when you log in(as opposed to the calculator) are correct. Just work your way down the link and it will give you the London figures too(both living at home and in Halls/alternative accomodation)

anon_ymous

I just did my calculation here:
http://www.studentfinance.direct.gov.uk/calculator/studentfinancecalculator/1213/summary.xhtml

and it seems that the maintenance loan/grant have gone up for me. The maintenance loan was £3829 for this year and the maintenance grant was £2906, giving a total of £6735

The maintenance loan has gone up to £3875, the grant has gone up to £3250 and they seem to have this new thing called "Long courses loan" from 2012 onwards (not sure if I'd get that being a 2011 student), which is £415

This year, I get £6735 in total
Next year, I either get £7125 or £7540 depending if the calculator has taken in to consideration people on the older system

I haven't done my application yet, though will probably do so at Easter

Shelldean

ggrrrr seems the gremilins are follwing me around.
I did post a comment this morning not long after my last one, saying 'd just found the link you've posted devildog.
Where it's gone is anyone's guess??

I also said I just wish they'd make the system simpler.

And we was told the amendments HAVE to be on their forms, so different to what you did. I was told which form I needed and the advisor sent it to me. During the call I made a note of the form needed as for some reason they couldn't ( more like wouldn't) send me two. So I made OH call when he got in and ask for the form needed. He got the right form I got the wrong one.... go figure!!!!

Kelly. She's losing appox £100 on her loan, so that seems to be normal. She is on either a 3 or 4 yr course, she has to decided during yr 2 which she wants to do. So another 2 maybe even 3 yrs of dealing with this. And maybe if I'm a really good girl my twins will go to uni as well and I can be stressed by dealing with all three of them:eek: