income support and student loans

pink-princess84

need some advice really. i'm a single parent and my daughter will be going off to school september 08. I would love to go to the local university and do a degree in accounting but am concerened that a student loan will affect my benefits and leave me worse off. Plus student loans are only paid at the begining of each term and i'm not very good at budgeting and will not be able to make it last for 3 months! could anybody give me any advice? thank you

kelloggs36

You won't get income support if you get a student loan as it works out about the same in terms of income, so you won't be worse off. If however, they are paying your mortgage, you should still get those payments and you will be classed as a 10p case (you get 10p of Income Support per week though this is paid much less frequently due to the small amount). You should qualify for Parent Learning Allowance and maybe even help towards childcare from the Student Loans Company. In addition to this, you may get help with the Access to Learning Fund with the University. My friend was on Income Support and was no worse off at all (she was also a single parent and in fact got loads of extra help so she was in fact, better off as a student than she was on IS). Go for it!

kelloggs36

You might get it in the Summer though - my friend did!

pink-princess84

thank you so much for your reply. I think i will go ahead. I'll have to sort something out regarding budgeting though! i dont think i could keep £2000 and make it last 3 months! it'd be gone in 3 weeks knowing me! but thanks very much for you help.

kelloggs36

could you not have 2 accounts - one that you use and a student one where the money gets paid into from the Student Loans Co? That way, you could set up a direct debit from your student account into your normal account of your living expenses for the month. Refuse a card from your student loan account that way you can ONLY set up the direct debit and won't be able to spend the other money! BTW, you get free overdraft on student accounts which will help.

my_two_cents

lone parents are part of prescribed type of people that can apply for income support as a full time student.