Finances for further education

supersaverkerry

From September my situation will be -

Access Course full time - 16 hours a week

Working - 30-36 hours per week

Living in shared house ( its my ex but we are seperated and share common areas until end of tenancy, have own bedrooms).

I know I do not have to pay council tax

Am I correct in thinking I will not get any housing benefit as I am a student?

I am 24 now so can not get tax credits I know, but I turn 25 in October, will I then get working tax credit, or can I not have it because I am a student?

I am also wondering about banking, is it only higer education students who can get a student account or can college students too? I am with Barclays now with only a basic account, when I looked online I didnt satisfy their requirements for their student account.

Thanks in advance

Dunroamin

Students can claim tax credits if doing the required hours, but not housing benefits.

agrinnall

Presumably you are currently sharing the cost of council tax with your ex. If you stop paying anything once you become a student your ex will then have to pay 75% of the full amount (ie 50% more than they are paying now) - how happy will they be about that?

nimbo

you won't be entitled to any benefits unless you earn less than national minimum wage for the 30 hrs you will be working.

students cannot claim housing benefit, (unless they have dependants etc)

and the council tax will be a bone of contention as your name will be on it, and it is one of the debts that will chase you to the ends of the earth until paid.

supersaverkerry

The council tax is not an issue, he knows this is the case and is happy to pay it as it was always part of the agreement - our finances are not an issue since I will be contributing more than I was when we were in relationship as I will actually be earning more than I was when we were together as I had to be off work after being very ill.

With regard to tax credits, how can I earn less than minimum wage? Surely you have to e paid minimum wage?

My income will be ( £6.08 x 10 hours x 3 shifts per week ) x 52 weeks = £9484.80 per year.

When I put this into the tax credit calculator it says something like I would get £16 per week. But there was no section to say I am a student which is why I did not know if I could get it.

nimbo

with the tax credits they will bump up your wage if you earn below the threshold.

the calculator may tell you you'd get xx pweek - but in reality you probably wouldn't unless your thirty hours were at less than NMW.... It doesn't take into account local variations or something.

you can call through to your local council to confirm. And there is a slim chance that you would (someone I know was offered 50p a week off her council tax bill), but as a singe person and working 30 hours you'd have to be incredibly lucky to get anything.

pickpocketlocket

nimbo wrote: »

with the tax credits they will bump up your wage if you earn below the threshold.

the calculator may tell you you'd get xx pweek - but in reality you probably wouldn't unless your thirty hours were at less than NMW.... It doesn't take into account local variations or something.

you can call through to your local council to confirm. And there is a slim chance that you would (someone I know was offered 50p a week off her council tax bill), but as a singe person and working 30 hours you'd have to be incredibly lucky to get anything.

That is nonsense - the threshold for a single person to receive WTC is over £12,000 - the OP earns considerably less than this and hence should be eligible.

~Chameleon~

Lloyds TSB offer student accounts to those in FE or studying Access courses. You also get a free NUS card.