Student nurse & money

j-josie

So..DS is about to become a student nurse. if he was doing a non funded course he would receive £5500"student loan plus we would contribute the extra £1620"to take him up to the max £7120 which a student on max eligibility could receive.

he has received bursary and loan awards notifications. Student loan is £2324, parental contrib assessed as £2416 and a bursary of £1585, making a total income of £6325, which is £775 less than the non funded scenario.

Ignoring the fact that he will not have to repay fees etc in the long run; just looking at the day to day living situation..am I reading the situation correctly and he will be allocated less money to live off than non nursing students? Am struggling to understand the logic behind this..

Dunroamin

Have you taken the £1,000 grant into account?

devildog

Crazy isn't it, believe you are right though it does appear that NHS students have less to live on than other students(even when you do allow for the £1.000 grant and the 'extra weeks worked' allowance.

The NHS income assessment is also a fair bit different to how Student Finance(Engand)do their assessment too -allowable outgoings are slightly different and the calculation for the parental contribution is different too. So I guess it all adds up.

I also think the 'play' comes into the figures(both NHS and 'ordinary' degrees) when parent's income is factored in., eg a student from a low income family doing a non NHS degree will receive more financially overall than one coming from a middle income family(even with parental contributions) and I think it is the same with an NHS course too.

j-josie

Dunroamin: yes, the bursary figure includes the £1,000

Devildog: What has confused me is that my calcs show that a student from low income family doing an NHS funded degree would get less than he would get if he were doing a non funded degree.. Same student, same family income but nursing studies will leave him with less money to pay the rent & feed himself...

the NHS parental contribution will make us squeak as it is! so much as I would love to make up the shortfall, I don't think I can. I shall have to encourage him to develop a liking for cheap pasta

I just wondered if anyone knew why there's a discrepancy between what the student loan people think a student needs to live on, and what the nhs think!

ah well, I am proud of him for choosing nursing as a career anyway:T

mumps

Hi my son has just ended his first year and has managed fine on his bursary. I guess the big one is accommodation costs which can vary greatly, I think if your son is going to London that could be hard, but my son seems to have a good time on his money. He is doing some bank work as a HCA at one of his placements. He tells me it is good money if you are prepared to do Sundays. I hope your son enjoys it as much as mine does.

devildog

j-josie wrote: »

Dunroamin: yes, the bursary figure includes the £1,000

Devildog: What has confused me is that my calcs show that a student from low income family doing an NHS funded degree would get less than he would get if he were doing a non funded degree.. Same student, same family income but nursing studies will leave him with less money to pay the rent & feed himself...

the NHS parental contribution will make us squeak as it is! so much as I would love to make up the shortfall, I don't think I can. I shall have to encourage him to develop a liking for cheap pasta

I just wondered if anyone knew why there's a discrepancy between what the student loan people think a student needs to live on, and what the nhs think!

ah well, I am proud of him for choosing nursing as a career anyway:T

I don't know why there is such a discrepancy or never actually looked at how much difference there was so just for the hell of it I have just entered the same fictious amount in both Student Finance and the NHS calculator based on a three year degree, income assessed with earnings of £20K and no deductions, living in halls outside London.

The result(ignoring tuition fees), finance from Student Finance £7125(loan £3875, grant £3250)

Finance from NHS £4575.00 (basic £2,591, £1,000 grant, and £984 extra weeks allowance(based on fact nurses etc tend to do 42 weeks)
Then they can also receive a non income assessed loan from student Finance of £2324 which brings the difference down to approx £226 which isn't that huge (but still significant) especially when you factor in that they have to be in attendance for extra weeks during the year, yes they get an allowance for that which they then deduct due to parental income! hmmmmm!

j-josie

Ummm, as you say that diff is not so large but DS has only been given an extra weeks allowance of about £416. he has asked them for a breakdown of that figure as not sure they have calculated the right no of extra weeks.

But, if we can get it down that that sort of difference that wold be much better.

Just had a look at his reading list and one of the books is £84! Am so glad I have already started a bit of an EBay clear out. Think we shall also ask if grandparents would like to buy him a book or two as well...

devildog

If it is any help, the basic finance package covers 30 weeks, anything over that they give £82 per week(outside London), they then add everything entitled to and deduct parent's contribution from that total amount.

mumps

j-josie wrote: »

Ummm, as you say that diff is not so large but DS has only been given an extra weeks allowance of about £416. he has asked them for a breakdown of that figure as not sure they have calculated the right no of extra weeks.

But, if we can get it down that that sort of difference that wold be much better.

Just had a look at his reading list and one of the books is £84! Am so glad I have already started a bit of an EBay clear out. Think we shall also ask if grandparents would like to buy him a book or two as well...

Lots of student unions organise sale of old books in freshers weeks, well they did at unis my kids attended/attend. This can save alot of money and generate money next year when they can sell the books again. From what I remember you need to be there early and have "jumble sale elbows" if you know what I mean. It is also worth waiting to see what they can get from the library. Not all books on reading list need to be bought and certainly not bought straight away.

mumps

devildog wrote: »

If it is any help, the basic finance package covers 30 weeks, anything over that they give £82 per week(outside London), they then add everything entitled to and deduct parent's contribution from that total amount.

That happened to my son, I think he got an extra 12 weeks, but it could have been 14. He paid reduced rent in his halls during those weeks as well.

devildog

mumps wrote: »

That happened to my son, I think he got an extra 12 weeks, but it could have been 14. He paid reduced rent in his halls during those weeks as well.

That's interesting and something I didn't know although it would make sense because the extra allowance would barely(if at all in some cases) cover the rent.