School Bursary 16-19 year olds

jamesmorgan

[quote=[Deleted User];54523391]Why have so many kids if you can't afford them?[/QUOTE]
It is not really a question of affordability - simply a matter of claiming benefits that are available. It is no different to someone on £40K claiming child benefit. They don't need the money, but reason that part of their tax is funding such benefits, and so feel within their rights to claim the benefit.

Dunroamin

jamesmorgan wrote: »

It is not really a question of affordability - simply a matter of claiming benefits that are available. It is no different to someone on £40K claiming child benefit. They don't need the money, but reason that part of their tax is funding such benefits, and so feel within their rights to claim the benefit.

But, in your case, the funding isn't available so surely that covers the issue?

duchy

Well you aren't within your "rights" to claim this one -It has certain criteria -and you don't meet that criteria with your current situation. How fortunate you are that you aren't on a lower income .

If it's not an affordability issue I don't really see what you are complaining about .

jamesmorgan

duchy wrote: »

Well you aren't within your "rights" to claim this one -It has certain criteria -and you don't meet that criteria with your current situation. How fortunate you are that you aren't on a lower income .

If it's not an affordability issue I don't really see what you are complaining about .

I'm not complaining - I'm seeking advice on how other schools have implemented this policy. In parallel to this thread I have also asked for guidance from the Dept of Education on whether the school has correctly implemented their guidance. They have responded that it is up to each school to define their own criteria, but that they are advised to take into account the number of dependent children when looking at household income. This is guidance only and schools are free to ignore it if they wish.

BigAunty

jamesmorgan wrote: »

I think you will find that university bursaries don't include benefits when measuring household income.

I wonder whether that poster was referring to the central national educational funding system (student maintenance grants and tuition fees) rather than bursaries/scholarships issued by individual universities.

University, colleges and charities can establish any criteria they wish for their bursaries and scholarships, it's their discretion. There's some weird and wonderful ones out there - some ancient ones give awards to the children of parents belonging to specific trades (and some of the trades no longer exist....).

Why not look at the Turn2us online benefit site as they have a search facility for grants?

There is a Student money saving board on this site where the posters there will be able to give you links to searchable databases or library books that cover educational bursaries, grants, loans that are donated by charities and companies, each of which will have their own specific criteria for who is eligible and how they class the applicant as being in need.

BigAunty

jamesmorgan wrote: »

I'm not complaining - I'm seeking advice on how other schools have implemented this policy. In parallel to this thread I have also asked for guidance from the Dept of Education on whether the school has correctly implemented their guidance. They have responded that it is up to each school to define their own criteria, but that they are advised to take into account the number of dependent children when looking at household income. This is guidance only and schools are free to ignore it if they wish.

So this school has decided not to adopt the guidance and so there's no direct redress whatsoever, by the sounds of it.

I think your only recourse is to persuade the governers to change their mind or ask your local MP to make a representation upon your behalf (assuming their political outlook favours the income of a household being ignored if the applicant has more than x children).

jamesmorgan

BigAunty wrote: »

So this school has decided not to adopt the guidance and so there's no direct redress whatsoever, by the sounds of it.

I think your only recourse is to persuade the governers to change their mind or ask your local MP to make a representation upon your behalf (assuming their political outlook favours the income of a household being ignored if the applicant has more than x children).

Yes, you are correct that to achieve change in this policy, I need to persuade the board of governors to change their mind. I don't feel that the involvement of an MP is either necessary or useful. However, 'best practice' from other schools could be useful - hence my original question.

The best analogy I can draw up is if a school has a policy to provide free transport for children to school if they live more than 3 miles away, but this is only provided to homes who only have one child. The bursary that I am applying for effectively provides free transport but is not available to my household because of the number of children I have.

pmlindyloo

jamesmorgan wrote: »

I'm not complaining - I'm seeking advice on how other schools have implemented this policy. In parallel to this thread I have also asked for guidance from the Dept of Education on whether the school has correctly implemented their guidance. They have responded that it is up to each school to define their own criteria, but that they are advised to take into account the number of dependent children when looking at household income. This is guidance only and schools are free to ignore it if they wish.

Discretionary bursaries

1.11 How do we decide which students should have a discretionary bursary?

[FONT=Arial,Arial][FONT=Arial,Arial]With the exception of the bursaries paid to young people in the defined vulnerable groups, providers are free to determine which young people should be eligible to receive a bursary and how much they should receive. [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial,Arial]Providers should manage the number and size of discretionary bursary awards to keep within their budget and to enable those facing the most significant financial barriers to participate in education. When assessing the need for financial support, providers should also consider other exceptional circumstances, such as where a young person is providing care to a sick or disabled relative. They are unlikely to be receiving Carer’s Allowance, though this is possible if they are in learning for less than 21 hours a week. In most cases i.e.: where not in receipt of Carer’s Allowance, providers should establish the circumstances of the young person, including what benefits the household is receiving and whether the young person is providing care for short or long periods. [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial,Arial]Unearned income (e.g. shares/investments, savings, rental income) may be taken into account when assessing whether students should receive a discretionary bursary and providers may also choose to take into account the number of dependent children in the household. [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial,Arial]We encourage providers to agree a consistent approach across an area, taking account of the needs and circumstances of young people locally. [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial,Arial]Examples of how providers are determining eligibility for discretionary bursaries are given in the Examples of Good Practice document. [/FONT]

(End of quote)



[FONT=Arial,Arial]Any money given for these bursaries must be first given to those young people in the defined vulnerable groups.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial,Arial]Any money left over is then given as a discretionary bursary.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Arial]Each provider has to set a criteria for this.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial,Arial]Your school has set its criteria as it has seen fit to do so, no doubt based on the amount of money left for the discretionary bursaries and the number of pupils that are potentially eligible.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial,Arial]Asking people what their schools do will not help you as it is unlikely that posters will have the necessary information on which the criteria is based.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial,Arial]I understand your frustration in this as it does seem unfair.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial,Arial]However, it could be argued that the whole benefit system is unfair, but everyone still has to abide by it.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial,Arial]Of course it is your decision as to whether you continue to try to change this particular decision but please bear in mind that ultimately any changes will be bound to affect someone financially as there is only a certain 'pot' of money to go round.[/FONT]


PS Excuse the large fond - a bit of a technophobe when trying to alter quoted, copied parts![/FONT]

jamesmorgan

pmlindyloo wrote: »

[FONT=Arial,Arial]Your school has set its criteria as it has seen fit to do so, no doubt based on the amount of money left for the discretionary bursaries and the number of pupils that are potentially eligible.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial,Arial]Asking people what their schools do will not help you as it is unlikely that posters will have the necessary information on which the criteria is based.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial,Arial]I understand your frustration in this as it does seem unfair.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial,Arial]However, it could be argued that the whole benefit system is unfair, but everyone still has to abide by it.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial,Arial]Of course it is your decision as to whether you continue to try to change this particular decision but please bear in mind that ultimately any changes will be bound to affect someone financially as there is only a certain 'pot' of money to go round.[/FONT]

Thanks for this feedback. I do have a degree of sympathy with the school and recognise that they are working with a fixed (and small) budget. This morning I have done an ad-hoc search on other school's policies. Most are published in some detail on their web-sites. The majority of policies seem to be similar to my own school, however, quite a few use household income (before benefits) with a lower cut-off (eg £18K). Other schools have more sophisticated approaches where they take account of the number of dependent children.

Overall I don't think my school is significantly out of line with others and will probably need to accept its policy as is. My bigger frustration is probably the lack of free school transport for 16-19 year olds, however, I am less likely to be able to influence this policy. In practice we may see a unification of the approach for this age group and the U16's, but only by removing free school transport for all ages.

MissE1981

I work in a further education college and have responsibility for interpreting the government guidance and managing the 16-19 Bursary Fund.

It is down to each individual college to set their own eligibility limits. We have set ours at £21k (£16,190 WFTC limit in 11/12) but we do not take into account benefits received. We use the TCAN (Tax Credits document) to determine household income so we don't have to do our own means assessment. In 2011/12 we had approx 1200 in receipt of the Bursary and 900 in receipt of Adult Discretionary Support Funds as well as 1200 still receiving EMA payments. It would be impossible for us means test every application. We have three categories for the Bursary:

Cat A - Vulnerable Young People, those in care/leaving care, in receipt of Income Support (as they are estranged from their parents) and learners in receipt of both DLA and ESA

Cat B - Household income of £21k or under as evidenced by the TCAN.

Cat C - Household income over £21K but family are in hardship and can demonstrate this.

If I were you I would approach,as suggested, your local MP/Council as Local Authorities have a statutory obligation to ensure transport costs won't prevent a 16-19 year old learner accessing education.

I would also find out who your Regional Manager is for the YPLA (Young Peoples Learning Agency - who allocate the funding to colleges/sixth forms) and explain your situation. They may be able to 'lean' on the college a little.

The whole idea of stopping EMA and introducing the Bursary was to better target those that needed the support. But as some colleges have been given awfully small budgets they have to set more stringent criteria. The amount of funding each college received was decided through a funding calculation which was roughly the number of learners in receipt of EMA at the college multiplied by a set amount.

Hope this helps.