Disabled Student with Child - Benefit entitlement?

mazza1985

Hi all

I've just been accepted onto a BSc(Hons) Mental Health Nursing course at my local university. I am currently 15 weeks pregnant and therefore deferring to September 2013. I am currently in receipt of middle rate care component of DLA and lower rate mobility. My partner and I both work full time at present.

I really do not want to leave my 8 month old baby with a child minder for me to go to uni. Also my partner starts work at 6:00 as he is a postal worker and so would be difficult to find childcare if I was doing an early shift. I have looked at my grants and loans etc and I am entitled to the following if my partner stays at home to look after my bubba:-

Bursary Calculation Breakdown (NHS)

• Basic Award £2,591.00
• Extra Weeks Allowance £984.00
• Dependants Allowance £3,179.00
• Parental Learning Allowance £1,303.00
• Total Gross £8,057.00
• Non Income Assessed Award £1,000.00
• Total Net £9,057.00

Plus a reduced rate student loan from SLC £2341 approx.

I have rang tax credits and they have confirmed that all of that income would be disregarded when calculating entitlement, so I would also receive £62.40 a week child tax credits, and £20.50 a week child benefit.

From September 2013....
Can my partner claim carers allowance for me?

Am I entitled to housing benefit? If so are there reductions?

Am I also right in thinking that I claim ESA whilst in full time education based on my DLA?

If not can my partner claim Income Support?

Please note that I am not looking for judgement on whether I am disabled if I can work or study full time, DWP have obviously decided that I am already.

~Chameleon~

Yes as long as (I think) you are receiving either middle or higher rate care. Your student loan will be deducted from ESA after an allowance for books and travel are calculated which is approx £300 per year.

xylophone

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/BenefitsTaxCreditsAndOtherSupport/Disabledpeople/DG_10011816


"You may be eligible for Disability Living Allowance if you have walking difficulties or need help with your personal care. You must have had these needs for three months and expect to need this help or have these difficulties for at least another six months.
If you have care needs
Already claiming DLA and want to report a change in your circumstances - find out more
Disability Living Allowance - your circumstances
To get the care component of Disability Living Allowance (DLA), your disability must be severe enough for you to either:
need help with things such as washing, dressing, eating, getting to and using the toilet, or communicating your needs
need supervision to avoid you putting yourself or others in substantial danger
need someone with you when you are on dialysis
be unable to prepare a cooked main meal for yourself (if you have the ingredients), if you are aged 16 or over
There are three rates of care component depending on how your disability affects you:
Lowest rate
If you need help for some of the day or you are unable to prepare a cooked main meal.
Middle rate
If you need help with personal care frequently or supervision continually throughout the day only, or help with personal care or someone to watch over you during the night only, or someone with you while you are on dialysis.
If you have mobility needs
To get the mobility component of Disability Living Allowance, your disability must be severe enough for you to have any of the following walking difficulties, even when wearing or using an aid or equipment you normally use:
because of a physical disability, you are unable or virtually unable to walk without severe discomfort, or at risk of endangering your life or causing deterioration in your health by making the effort to walk
you have no feet or legs
you are assessed to be both 100 per cent disabled because of loss of eyesight and not less than 80 per cent disabled because of deafness and you need someone with you when you are out of doors
you are severely mentally impaired with severe behavioural problems and qualify for the highest rate of care component
you need guidance or supervision most of the time from another person when walking out of doors in unfamiliar places
you are certified as severely sight impaired by a consultant ophthalmologist, and you were aged between 3 and 64 on 11 April 2011; you must also have a best corrected visual acuity of less than 3/60, or you must have a best corrected visual acuity of 3/60 or more but less than 6/60 together with a complete loss of peripheral visual field and a central visual field of no more than ten degrees in total
There are two rates of the mobility component depending on how your disability affects you:
Lower rate
If you need guidance or supervision out of doors.

Please note that I am not looking for judgement on whether I am disabled if I can work or study full time, DWP have obviously decided that I am already.

I've just been accepted onto a BSc(Hons) Mental Health Nursing course at my local university.

Given this range of difficulties, would working as an RMN be possible?

mazza1985

xylophone wrote: »

Given this range of difficulties, would working as an RMN be possible?

Oooh lovely, someone that has chosen to ignore the last 2 lines of my post

FYI look at my signature, I actually work with people with severe and enduring mental illness already.

Taking it you have never heard of peer support/lived experience then? I suppose us folk with mental illness should be locked in a dungeon somewhere with no entitlement to a life? Just because I have a disability does not mean that I cannot work. Being as DLA is one of the most accurately targeted benefits, I think its highly unlikely that they have awarded such a huge amount of money by mistake, isnt it?

I get DLA because I need "constant" (which isnt actually constant as me and you know it by DWPs standards, it is for a substantial portion of the day, frequently) supervision throughout the day. Which means when I am getting ready for work, communication with my partner during the day when I am at work, and when I get home before I go to bed. I get lost in unfamiliar places which causes me to have panic attacks, so I need supervision when going somewhere I do not know until I have learnt where I am going. I am also a brittle asthmatic.

Any other questions or can we actually get back to the original thread now?

mazza1985

~Chameleon~ wrote: »

Yes as long as (I think) you are receiving either middle or higher rate care. Your student loan will be deducted from ESA after an allowance for books and travel are calculated which is approx £300 per year.

Thank you this is what I suspected. I'm quite hot on welfare benefits but have never dealth with a claim for students at work or in my own life so this is new territory for me!

Dunroamin

mazza1985 wrote: »

Oooh lovely, someone that has chosen to ignore the last 2 lines of my post

FYI look at my signature, I actually work with people with severe and enduring mental illness already.

Taking it you have never heard of peer support/lived experience then? I suppose us folk with mental illness should be locked in a dungeon somewhere with no entitlement to a life? Just because I have a disability does not mean that I cannot work. Being as DLA is one of the most accurately targeted benefits, I think its highly unlikely that they have awarded such a huge amount of money by mistake, isnt it?

I get DLA because I need "constant" (which isnt actually constant as me and you know it by DWPs standards, it is for a substantial portion of the day, frequently) supervision throughout the day. Which means when I am getting ready for work, communication with my partner during the day when I am at work, and when I get home before I go to bed. I get lost in unfamiliar places which causes me to have panic attacks, so I need supervision when going somewhere I do not know until I have learnt where I am going. I am also a brittle asthmatic.

Any other questions or can we actually get back to the original thread now?

It's a bit harsh to play the disability card quite so strongly when someone's asked a very simple question after offering you a fair bit of help.

mazza1985

Dunroamin wrote: »

It's a bit harsh to play the disability card quite so strongly when someone's asked a very simple question after offering you a fair bit of help.

And what help would that be exactly? Because all they did is tell me the qualifying criteria DLA, which I already know, then question if I have ability to be RMN because I have a disability! I would call this a hinderence rather than help.

mikey_bach

Your Partner can claim Carers Allowance for you if he finished full time work.
This would give him entitlement to I.S but your bursary when you receive it will be taken in pound for pound.
A bursary is treated different to a loan in there is no disregard, its taken in as a weekly figure.
on I.S you would get Couple Rate, CP and Couple DP, minus the CA

Income Based ESA would treat the bursary in the same way.

mynameistallulah

mazza1985 wrote: »

I get DLA because I need "constant" (which isnt actually constant as me and you know it by DWPs standards, it is for a substantial portion of the day, frequently) supervision throughout the day. Which means when I am getting ready for work, communication with my partner during the day when I am at work, and when I get home before I go to bed. I get lost in unfamiliar places which causes me to have panic attacks, so I need supervision when going somewhere I do not know until I have learnt where I am going. I am also a brittle asthmatic.

Sorry but I do agree with xylophone. How are you going to help someone in crisis if you apparently need all this support yourself? You won't be able to nip off and ring the hubby or have a panic attack everytime you visit a new patient. Did you tell the university this when you applied?

mazza1985

mynameistallulah wrote: »

Sorry but I do agree with xylophone. How are you going to help someone in crisis if you apparently need all this support yourself? You won't be able to nip off and ring the hubby or have a panic attack everytime you visit a new patient. Did you tell the university this when you applied?

Yes I was honest about my disability, and they do not see it as a problem. Bristol are quite forward when it comes to lived experience/peer support. the fact that I have mostly attended work full time for 4 and half years because of the support I have in place would have helped.

mazza1985

Also my mental health problem is not panic attacks, I have panic attacks in unfamilar places, which my current employer has overcome by others showing me routes on buses etc. My boyfriend will quite often show me new routes in his car (unless address is confidential of course).