students job seekers allowance

rubuhoeikanaika

kat2302 wrote: »

I've been watching this thread and I'm quite appalled at the mishaprehensions going around here. I've been a student for 2 years and its the best decision I've ever made - but the money situation is so tight you wouldn't believe. In April we get given just under £1700 which sounds like a lot doesnt it? But I'm paying £235 a month in rent, its murder trying to find a job, I have to also pay for books, my food...the list is endless. I'm going to have to eat away my overdraft this summer just to pay the rent. I know that a 16 yr old single mum doesn't have it easy money wise but its unfair to compare the two! We're in two very different circumstances

The fact that you don't have any money doesn't make you poor. as students we have (had, in my case) access to a wide variety of safety nets that normal people don't. And don't forget that you are sheilded from a lot of expenses that working people face: council tax, (probably) running a car and so on.

Let's say a regular student income without busting a nut by working all the hours sent is £6k? That includes some vacation work and maybe a part-time job during term. With a £4k student loan, say, that's definitely a low-ball figure, maybe £8k would be more realistic but let's stick with it.

Your rent is £235/month = £2820

So that gives you £3180 (assuming £6k) for everything after rent. This is remarkably close to the £60/week figure for over-25s on jobseekers allowance (under 25s get less, more like £45/week).

So let me get this straight: you get an income-contingent interest-free loan, a hardship fund to back you up if things go really bad, (probably) free or reduced food and board during the holidays, at least as much money as someone on benefits, and you are complaining?

Three things:

• You whinge about having to go into your overdraft. Can you name another group in society that gets one interest-free?
• You are presumably doing this degree because you enjoy your subject, and you are getting massively discounted tuition.
• Your degree will probably last three or four years. The thing about being on benefits is that it's often indefinite.

When I was a student I was involved in financial counselling. This is where I got my slightly harsh attitude. Not only did I find people who whinged about poverty happily buying several £3.50 drinks in bars and clubs (I've no problem with students enjoying themselves, but at least try to do it on the cheap), but also doing stupid things like:

• Spending £400 on a (crap, heavy, spyware-infested, hot) laptop from PC world, just for 'essays and itunes'. A £200 used model would bejust as good for your needs.
• Buying books new *after* I told them about the used copies on sale (same edition). I know for sure this happened in maths, no direct evidence in others.
• Eating out with a bill of around £15 once a week or more. This was presented as a completely necessary expense, on a par with heat and light. Again, I've no problem with fun - but cook at home or eat in a pub where it's £5.
• Monthly cell phone bills of £35+, with hundreds of inclusive minutes going to waste.
• Being lazy and spending lots of money on buses for journeys under 1.5 miles, instead of walking or biking.

Don't get me wrong, there were people in genuine financial difficulty, but these were almost entirely:

• Those with a family/kid to support.
• People whose parents had shafted them (eg by not paying their asessed contribution)
• People who had gone nuts on credit cards in their first year, and were trying to remedy their mistakes. I liked these guys, they were very proactive.

rubohe

gemjarz

maybe you had a bad lot of students, but some of us do 'burst a nut' to get our degrees and work part time at the same time. and not all of us are students who 'go home' in the holidays for 'free' food and cheap accomodation, so even though I understand where you are coming from (students saying they are poor, and buying takeaways/expensive booze etc) please remember that not ALL students are like this, and some of us do struggle to make ends meet on a week to week basis.

also, student LOANS (not benefits) are not interest free, and not all are eligible for £4k a year. Since parental income if factored into the amount given, and parental contribution is expected, but not demanded, student loans can be as little as £650 per academic year. And this isn't always because parents are 'shafting' their children.

Plus, not sure where you live, but rent for £265 per month? Lucky! In student halls, in the city where i live it is MUCH more expensive.

£60 per week,(if you have the luxury of that, after you pay rent) as you stated, is not that much to buy food, books(yes, second hand), tv licence, electricity, gas, petrol, insurance, glasses/contact lenses, etc. and thats without paying for things that other students do have, such as broadband, mobile phone/house phone bill.

so please dont tar everyone with the same brush here. It's really not fair, and It's incredibly insulting to say that we are better off than people on benefits. Do students get help paying the rent? No. Do people on benefits? Yes. Just a point.

Thanks

Wiggynut

I can't wait to become a student... don't have to pay rent for 3 years (sort of!) lots of feedback, training, discounts and will earn the going rate after... WOW!

I've worked 22 years and never got any of that! I still get paid up to £10,000 pa next to my colleagues (yet they are too slow for the urgent work!) when I left home (had to - abusive family - haven't seen them since) and had to pay rent and bills on £35 per week - I worked a 45 hour week and was suppose to receive training - hence the low wage - but had to actually train others instead! If I did get paid for overtime I got £1.50 per hour (they mostly didn't pay up though!)

I will never get such a low loan rate ever again in my life and if something happens apparently I could apply for a hard ship fund (I do doubt I that I will need to apply for it as I've always managed - but I've never had that safety net before!)

it will be hard as I'll have to be sensible (lol!) but I'm hoping that I can work and the recession/credit crunch means that the part time work doesn't dry up or become too difficult to find.
I'm sure I'll get caught up in all the 'poor student' thing now and then but overall I think it's quite cool... wish I'd realised a few years back!

(ps: I'm 36 so I'll be living in private rented housing - not halls)

themanbearpig

I'm probably at the poor end on the scale at my university (which just seems to be full of rich privately educated toffs) now, due to family circumstances. My parents have recently seperated, and I get nothing from my idiot father, and my mother is disabled, hence just getting by herself (claiming housing benefits until the house sells, and she can buy one, which doesn't seem likely with the property market being as it is!)
I get the full wack of student loan, a £1000 grant, and tutition fees payed. I knew I wouldn't be able to cover my costs, even with all this help (living is expensive!), so I applied for access to learning and got £1400 from them.
Even with all this, I still managed to get into a £1000 overdraft after the year (although this was mainly my fault overspending, and not budgeting)
Budgeting in 'student land', where everyone seems to have huge amounts of disposable income, and daddy gives them £500 a month on top of their loan is difficult. Not joining in with the bar crawls and getting takeaways and stuff because you can't afford it is depressing.

Anyway, I get by pretty easily without getting a job, but only because my family is in a really bad position right now, and have nothing. The government seems to make a big point about university being accessable for the poor, which it is, since I guess I am poor now.
But the people whose parents are slightly better off, such as those with parents on borderline low incomes are the ones that I see really struggle, as they are priced out of the high loans and help as their parents earn what the govenment considers a good income, yet can't contribute to their childrens education because of the cost of living a middle-class life. In the entire student population, this 'borderline' group is much bigger than my 'poor' group, which is why a lot of students complain about money.

Titch89

kat2302 wrote: »

But I'm paying £235 a month in rent

Which isn't a lot (£58.75 per week) compared to what you'd pay if you were to rent privately.

student loans can be as little as £650 per academic year.

Um, they're not. The lowest amount you can get is just over £2500.

Do students get help paying the rent? No. Do people on benefits? Yes. Just a point.

People on benefits DON'T get that much money. They get the maximum amount the government says they need to live on.

At least you lot are getting some form of help from the government and don't have to fund everything yourself.

Oldernotwiser

themanbearpig wrote: »

Budgeting in 'student land', where everyone seems to have huge amounts of disposable income, and daddy gives them £500 a month on top of their loan is difficult. Not joining in with the bar crawls and getting takeaways and stuff because you can't afford it is depressing.

I'm sure that your perception of current student living is accurate as you're there at present. However I can never understand how things moved to this point. I did my degree many years ago when there were still grants (also assessed on parental income) but I never knew anyone who expected to run a car/eat out/go out drinking off campus/buy new clothes etc.

If students now are worst off, why is it they expect to do and buy the things that come with employment? It always amazes me that expensive halls with en suite accommodation are the first to fill up! It seems that at the same time as student finance has become more difficult, students have come to expect a much higher standard of living than was the case previously. I find this all very strange!

eddychapman

I think you might be a little harsh here, many students are caught in difficult situations that the student loans services don't cover:

For example: a student who's parents live in central London with four children, with a mortgage will be looking at the same level of support from the government as an only child student who's parents live in the country-side who own their house already.

The student loan (for studying outside london) is around £3,200 which is just enough to cover the cost of accommodation (usually leaving around £100 left over for the year) Therefore, the further costs of living need to either be covered by the student working or support from a potentially already financially strained household.

There is surprisingly little support if you do not fall into one of the designated categories.

With regards to the Prescriptions, very few people can now get free prescriptions, including students.


So, to the pompous t*** that thinks he knows everything get your facts right and to the 'whinging student', provided you are in a such a situation and daddy is not giving you vast sums of money I suggest: rotating socks (they can be worn up to 3 times usually before smelling too bad) apply the f**k out of everything (I've applied to every job agency in town and all the companies I can think of and I finally got something) and get yourself a Natwest overdraft £1250! Woop!

rubuhoeikanaika wrote: »

Something is wrong here. I think you are pretty well misinformed.

It is true that you cannot claim JSA when you are a student. But there are many funds available to students and not to the general public - hardship funds, access to learning etc etc. Have you looked into these or are you just assuming you wouldn't get them?

"unfortunately if you dont get pregnant at 16 and start claiming benefits straight away theres no help!"

There's no need for this offensive nonsense - gonna start blaming asylum seekers next? How about the fact the state is massively subsidizing your education and giving you a real-terms interest free loan? How many pregnant 16 year olds get that?

"I dont even get my prescriptions free."

Either you get your prescriptions free or you are massively richer than the average student. Get form HC1 help with health costs - I have this and I get free prescriptions, free travel to see a doctor, free eye tests etc etc with the certificate. The form asks for your income, not your parents'.

If you have tried and don't qualify, then you have absolutely no business whingeing about being a poor student.

You've really put me in a bad mood - unless there are extreme extenuating circumstances, in which case I apologise - shut the !!!! up, stop whingeing and don't listen to what other ignorant students tell you.

rubuhoe

LittleSnowBear

Sometimes students fall in to some kind of gap where you unelligable for anything during the summer months as the student loan and the ALF (ours anyway) is worked out due to the amount of weeks within the academic year, supposingly during the summer students who have problems finding a job must cease to exist at the end of july until the end of september. Any summer funds at my uni go to single parents only and as I had to pay tuition fees out of my own loan this year it makes me 3grand down before starting which according to the university does NOT count as an expense so they insist I am three grand better off.

Prudent

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

I'm sure that your perception of current student living is accurate as you're there at present. However I can never understand how things moved to this point. I did my degree many years ago when there were still grants (also assessed on parental income) but I never knew anyone who expected to run a car/eat out/go out drinking off campus/buy new clothes etc.

If students now are worst off, why is it they expect to do and buy the things that come with employment? It always amazes me that expensive halls with en suite accommodation are the first to fill up! It seems that at the same time as student finance has become more difficult, students have come to expect a much higher standard of living than was the case previously. I find this all very strange!

This always baffles me too. Student life seemed very basic when I was at uni in the mid 1980's compared to today. We cycled or walked everywhere, used a pay phone, bought second hand books or used the library and lived on very cheap food. Unless we lived in halls, heating was great luxury. We had a take away about once a term and I never remember eating out except when my parents came to visit. Loads of fun though. I worked through the holidays to help fund term time and had a grant.

I now worry about the cost of sending my daughter to uni next year. The expectations are so high. As a single parent, I have only managed to save £3000 towards her costs. I am really worried she will miss out on all the fun I had at uni because students live a far more expensive lifestyle, which I cannot fund for her.

The_One_Who

LittleSnowBear wrote: »

Sometimes students fall in to some kind of gap where you unelligable for anything during the summer months as the student loan and the ALF (ours anyway) is worked out due to the amount of weeks within the academic year, supposingly during the summer students who have problems finding a job must cease to exist at the end of july until the end of september. Any summer funds at my uni go to single parents only and as I had to pay tuition fees out of my own loan this year it makes me 3grand down before starting which according to the university does NOT count as an expense so they insist I am three grand better off.

No, your student loan is supposed to last you throughout the summer months, that is why you get a smaller loan in your last year since it only last up until the end of the academic term.