Student Finance - Assess with household income or not?

laurenweird

Hello everyone! I was wondering if I could get people's experience of advice on our paticular situation.

When I first started applying for university I thought getting a loan would be as simple as taking out a loan to pay my course fees directly and that would be that, but I realise now there are maintenance loans and all other kinds of things. I have started my application for Student finace and I have come to a but where I can either apply for a loan with no household income supplied and I will get:

Maintenance loan of £3575.00
Tuition Fee Loan of up to £7100.00


or I can supply information for possible further help - but do I need it?


So now on to our personal situation. I live in rented accomodation with my boyfriend and our two young children (4 and 2 years old) My partner currently works but only as an apprentice so is on roughly £98 a week - so we get working/child tax credits and housing benefit.


If I was to take out the loans offered to me without providing household income will it affect any of the benefits we are currently recieving? If not, surely I'd be ok just going ahead with that - as long as my course fees are being paid off I can live on what we are already recieving? (I don't really want to take out a maintenance loan)


or am I best taking out more? Will I NEED to take out more?


Any and all help is greatly appreciated! Don't want to be making stupid choices


(It is a full time, 3 year course)

Shelldean

I know when I did first time for my DD I was able to do the calculations both with and without our incomes. So we could decide which was the best option, can you still do that?

Do you not qualify for a maintenance grant?? these dont need to be repaid. DD is entitled to the full maintenance loan, but as she is also entitled to full grant they reduce her laon by £1500, but give her the grant of £3000.

Do try and see if you can get appox both with and without income details, you'll be able to make a better judgement then of the best course of action

laurenweird

It says I am entitled to the grant, yes (provided I've filled everything in correctly!) - but what I'm concerned about is - by having that grant my housing benefit will stop, right?

Now, would housing benefit stop regardless of grants and loans as my tuition loan counts towards it? Or if I ONLY take a tuition loan and nothing else, will I still get housing benefit?

Seems pointless taking the grant if all it'll do is pay the rent housing benefit would have paid - but if by going to uni I am no longer entitled to housing benefit anyway, I will need to accept the grant.

I don't know if I'm making sense?:rotfl:

Shelldean

laurenweird wrote: »

It says I am entitled to the grant, yes (provided I've filled everything in correctly!) - but what I'm concerned about is - by having that grant my housing benefit will stop, right?

Now, would housing benefit stop regardless of grants and loans as my tuition loan counts towards it? Or if I ONLY take a tuition loan and nothing else, will I still get housing benefit?

Seems pointless taking the grant if all it'll do is pay the rent housing benefit would have paid - but if by going to uni I am no longer entitled to housing benefit anyway, I will need to accept the grant.

I don't know if I'm making sense?:rotfl:

Yes you do make sense, but am afraid I dont know the answers.
You need Takio to come and answer these questions.
It was different for us as my DD income ( whatever she gets doesnt affect our housing benefits)

One thought would it be worth trying the entitled to website, inputting both incomes with and without??? and see if it makes any differences to housing benefits etc?

Lokolo

http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/housing_benefit_and_local_housing_allowance/housing_benefit_for_students

Your student loan income will be taken into account. But from benefits point of view you usually wouldn't be worse off.

Try the calculator to work out.

laurenweird

It would seem, according to that, I personally wouldn't be entitled to any housing benefit but my partner MAY be entitled to some. I just don't want to be taking out any unnecessary loans. I've never owed money, ever, and even the thought of the tutition loan makes me nervous (and yes, I know I have to earn over a certain amount before I pay it back) but the thought of owing even more money on top of that makes me nervous

Shelldean

one more thing to consider... Busary!!

not all uni's grant them, and the criteria for getting the busary varies from uni to uni. But every little helps when things are tight.

So do check!!!

laurylaury

Certainly during the summer my husband and I applied for council tax benefit which was then taken away once the new uni year started since my husband was receiving student loan and they class this as a form of income.

Definitely you'll need to calculate it based on your circumstances to find out what benefits you the most.

Hope this helps.

laurenweird

Ah so the loans used to pay my course fees ARE classed as a form of income?

In that case my Housing Benefit will most likely be affected.

Will Citizens Advice be able to help? Do they deal with this kind of thing? (if so, will make an appointment with my local one)

Dunroamin

`Any means tested benefits your household is eligible for will be affected by your student loan, whether you choose to take it out or not.

Erinnire

You should apply with household income taken into account as otherwise you are only eligible for 65% of the maintenance loan. Your benefits are affected by the loan and grant whether you take them out or not so it would be stupid IMO not too.

You will also be eligible for the parents learning allowance approx £1500 and the adult dependants grant approx £2600 which are not calculated for benefits.

You should take out everything you are entitled too, the repayments are taken directly from your wages so there is no need to budget nor can you get behind in payments. The interest is minimal its probably the cheapest loan you will ever have and it is an investment In yourself.

Have you attended any open days? There are usually finance talks there you could also speak to your uni of choice and someone from the finance department would be able to give you a better run down of what's available to you.

If your household income is below £25000 most (if not all) uni's have a bursary package worth upto £3000 on offer to student, however if is divided up differently by uni for example my first choice uni give you a £1500 fee waiver and the other £1500 is divvied up between your choice of cash, accomidation discount, food vouchers or an it package (iPad)

My second choice uni is either a mix of accomidation discount and cash or the full £3000 in cash.