Full time & Part time Adult Students Entitlement & kids

Lupylu

Hi All,
In September my husband & I are going to be starting our Cert Ed qualifications. He would like to do his full time & I would like to do mine part time. He is currently working but wants to become a full time student as there is a teaching job waiting for him at the end of his course. I will be starting work in September as a teacher for 4 hours a week for 5 weeks & for 2 hours the following 5 weeks. Then nothing until January & the same timescale & hours again. I currently get DLA at £17pw. We have 2 children one aged 5 & the other is nearly 2. I have been trying to find out if we would be able to survive if my husband became a full time student for a year or if we should both be part time students or both full time students, but ideally my husband needs to do his course full time. We have a mortgage, & currently receive child tax credit & working tax credit. I have spoken to citizens advice & they said they couldn't advise me about students & I have spoken to student services who also said the couldn't advise about benefit entitlement. I am finding it hard to work out what we would be entitled to either by grant, bursary or benefits. So I am hoping someone here may be able to help.

seven-day-weekend

I have a feeling full-time students are not entitled to benefits such as income support or housing benefit. I may be wrong though.

Would your husband be eligible for a student loan?

Why don't you put your Cert Ed on hold for a year? Then your husband can do his Cert Ed full-time, while you work (have to be more than five hours though); and then you can do yours full-time while he is working at his teaching job? Maybe you will get more money coming in that way.

mummytofour

Check with your LEA, you should get some help with grants. Also student loans. Students get hlpe with childcare, but not via tax credits, again LEA should know.
Tax credits will base themselves upon your house hold income which will be make up of loans and grants.
Also tax credits will look at house much has been earned this tax yr and take that into account, bar hum bug.

Lupylu

Hi thanks for your replies I have found out some more info on this so hopefully this will help others out too. Because we will both be students going into teaching we are entitled to a special support grant as well as a parental grant & student loans, we will both be assessed as individuals, so we are both entitled. Also anything we earn within this period of time won't affect any of the grants/loans. This makes things a little less scary now going from full time work to being a student for a year.
Thanks again
Lupylu