Tax credit and NHS nursing bursary

jeanniefaethecarse

Hello! I hope this is the right place to ask this... I swithered about putting it on the Tax Credits forum, but thought someone on here might have experience of this and be able to advise.

I'm just off the phone to a friend who has worked as a care assistant in a local home for about two years.
She's thinking about applying for mental health nursing at university and is trying to work out the financial implications it will entail.
She and her husband (both working over 30 hours) currently get working tax credit and child tax credit (2 children under 16)
She is thinking about a full time course, her husband will continue to work, (earns £7800 pa) and she intends to work weekends at the care home she is currently at (her line manager is both supporting and encouraging of this career shift)
I offered to ask on here as she is away on holiday at the moment and I'd like to have an answer for her before she returns.
Can anyone give an indication of how much bursary she would receive? Would the family get any tax credit as they would still be working? They live in Scotland in case it makes a difference to any calculation.
Many thanks in advance.

Fire_Fox

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2012/03/6709/4
http://www.turn2us.org.uk/benefits_search.aspx

jeanniefaethecarse

Thank you so much Fire Fox Very helpful links

Dunroamin

Worth asking is whether your friend is already qualified for degree level study. If she has to do something like an Access course for a year, the funding is very different.

Person_one

She won't be able to work every weekend during a nursing degree, she'll need to do a good few weekends on placement, so I'd make sure her employer is aware of that.

jeanniefaethecarse

Thank you for the advice Dunromin and Person_one.
I don't know about her qualifications, I'll have to ask her.
Luckily the care home she works at is very supportive, and they've already had the talk about placement and her not being available every week, so everyone is aware that there's going to have to be give and take on both sides.
Thank you all for being so helpful. I really appreciate it. -Jeannie

weemissnaughty

hiya, i'm doing mental health nursing in scotland... all nurses get £550 per month non repayable and it doesnt take into account partners income (next one due on friday... counting the days!) and you can apply for childcare costs (i'm not sure how much it is because I dont have children but my friend recieved childcare costs from nhs) also my friend applied for tax credits and they're giving her quite a bit for childcare as well - and sometimes individual unis have their own funding for this too?
I'm not sure if its all unis but mines has said that on placement we cant be forced to work nights or weekends, basically all we HAVE to do is uni hours, although obviously a bit of flexability is good, I wouldnt see it being too hard to get weekends off (if she's in the community which a lot of MH placements are it will be monday to friday, and if its in a hospital, its opened 7 days so they could maybe work around her hours?)
Tell her to go for it though i'm only in first year and LOVING it so much more than I thought I would (although first year is mainly adult nursing)
xx

jeanniefaethecarse

Hi weemissnaughty! That's really really useful! Thank you so much for taking the time to write down your and your friend's experience.
I really hope my friend does go for it. She'd be a brilliant nurse. Hearing your good experience with it is definitely going to encourage her. Good luck with your course. xx Jeannie