Loss of grant and bursary

GwylimT

GoldenShadow wrote: »

Not every medical student receives parental support and being a medical student does not mean you can't have a part time job, that's all I'm saying. Four of my friends are medical students and only one doesn't have a job. Saying that they don't get parental support either, actually.

So you do think it is personally reasonable for someone to be able to work enough to support themselves in their daily free time of 7 hours per day, do medical students not require sleep or food? If my son had a job not only would he be unable to sleep, he would be kicked off his course immediately.

Dunroamin

GwylimT wrote: »

So you do think it is personally reasonable for someone to be able to work enough to support themselves in their daily free time of 7 hours per day, do medical students not require sleep or food? If my son had a job not only would he be unable to sleep, he would be kicked off his course immediately.

Students don't usually work enough hours to support themselves, just to give themselves a bit oif extra income.

GoldenShadow

GwylimT wrote: »

So you do think it is personally reasonable for someone to be able to work enough to support themselves in their daily free time of 7 hours per day, do medical students not require sleep or food? If my son had a job not only would he be unable to sleep, he would be kicked off his course immediately.

You do not feel your son has time for a job. That is your opinion. I am typing the facts that I have, which are that I have four medical student friends, three of whom do have part time jobs (one is in their final year, one next to final year pretty much now). I know they get extra hours in the hospitals they've had placements in at times too, one is a regular auxiliary nurse in hers. She quite likes it as its less strain on her brain for a few hours a couple times a week, more time with people and less in books.

You need to remember that even 8 hours a week is £40-50. That is a *lot* of money to a student. I was living of £18 a week for food/transport/laundry after budgeting my 1K overdraft before I got a part time job. We're not talking working 20 hours+.

It is not impossible to have a part time job as a medical student. Its tough, but people do it if they need and/or want to. You say your son couldn't sleep or eat if he worked, so its just as well you give him money, but not everybody has that luxury of parents who can afford to do that, and not every medical student gets thrown out of uni for having a job, either..!

dredd7

once your girlfriend moves in the student finance will carry out an assessment on both of your incomes including benefits. This might have a negative effect on the grants. But to be sure i would advise to go and see citizen advice people to clarify.hope this helps

Dunroamin

dredd7 wrote: »

once your girlfriend moves in the student finance will carry out an assessment on both of your incomes including benefits. This might have a negative effect on the grants. But to be sure i would advise to go and see citizen advice people to clarify.hope this helps

The CAB aren't the people to see about student finance - the university welfare/student services is likely to be more help, although the case seems to be very straightforward.

TurnUpForTheBooks_2

The OP describes a seemingly impossible situation for three people to steer through and I sympathise but I am sure it can be worked through.

Of course this student has no spare 8 hours to earn fifty quid pocket money. Besides, all that would buy him would be a half drinkable bottle of cognac to help his digestion and sleep. That's since the Chinese started diverting all the best stuff away from us and the price doubled in the last two years. I don't suppose most cognac drinkers have actually noticed, which is another reason why I think they might soon get over a doubling of the price of cars too!

Anyway back to the OP - this student is already contributing more to society than most older adults can contemplate contributing in a lifetime.

What on earth is this country playing at? Is this some kind of endurance test from hell ?

The OP should in my view be paying more tax like all who have a comfortable income should be, but that doesn't mean that he and this medical student's mother should be specially singled out now for new burden just for their developing relationship, or the threat of being treated as potential fraudsters if they do not declare the developing details of their own living arrangements.

But that's what the rules seem to say. Makes it appear like the pleasure of entering into a relationship with a poor mother is subject to a luxury tax to be collected by the mother's son. The mother's son has to take the risk of not being able to collect it from the mother's reluctant boyfriend but that doesn't matter because he is a medical student and he is expected to be rich one day. Disgraceful logic isn't it?

Ditch the current loan system and all the useless administration that goes with it. Tax the already wealthy heavily - all of them who wish to flaunt wealth using ownership of newish cars upwards as a good barometer of who we are talking about. Give a free education to ALL undergraduates who start their courses below age (what shall we say - 25?). That's because our whole education and child welfare systems are a mess and it may take some years for those damaged by the mess to sort themselves out and find their way to the higher education track. Pay all of them an non-repayable allowance of at least £6,000 a year / £8,000 for Inner London and one or two other locations where accommodation and transport is expensive and reduce it to £3,000 where the student does indeed still form part of the parents household and lives there whilst at university. Demote the government loan system to a simple system for provision of guaranteed loans to those who really need them who need to borrow over and above their £6000/£8000/£3000 grant and free tuition.

I am not sure how those guaranteed loans would be limited or administered but from what I read in these forums, most students would not need them if they received £6000pa grant and free tuition - at least not unless they were on longer more demanding courses like the OP describes.

But apart from the live at "home" grant reduction we must delink student finances completely from their parents.

When I went to university a traditional couple with a student child was a married couple and there was one main wage-earner who was likely to have no problem maintaining a stable income for decades at a stretch.

Marriage is now irrelevant, our household incomes ebb and flow like we live in an active earthquake fault zone and are expected to live off passing fallen coconuts and huge numbers of relationships defy any truly taxable definition. It is actually ridiculous that having dumped the marriage allowance which valued the creation of couples such that now our government should actually be indirectly taxing the creation of a couple relationships in the sorts of ways the OP is rightly complaining about.

I mean what business is it of anyone, let alone the government, of who wants to share a bed and mealtimes and goodtimes on a regular basis with who?

It is just sordid prying and penalisation. And to think that councils or central government might actually employ spies to sit in cars watching your house if you don't declare it - yuk - what kind of people do jobs like that?!

Just tax the flaunting of wealth. Mansion tax is one way but hasn't yet gained proper traction.

A car purchase tax is another way and it gets right to the heart of the matter.


A combination of the two might eventually be useful.

Mansions are not easily disposable to avoid tax. Cars are however.

If you don't wish to pay car tax then if you have a fancy motor then sell it and don't buy another fancy motor until you are ready to pay your whack in tax.

Meantime, I would suggest that the OPs gf maintains her own cheap address and keeps a wardrobe in both places. There's nothing stopping her son using it either. We don't know the geography/logistics, but what is to stop the mother officially sharing an address with her son? (my suggestion of a reduced £3000 grant for that hasn't kicked in yet so don't let that be a barrier :rotfl:)

There are plenty of ways to skin the cat I would think unless the OP actually wants to get married.

Puddin_

Everybody on this thread keeps repeating how the son is an adult so not his responsibility anyway.

Unfortunately university doesn't always see it like that. I am from N.I and the finance company considered me to be a dependent student even though I no longer wanted to ask my parents for anything.

In N.I an independent student would have to be married, over 25 or officially estranged (requiring a social worker to interview each party and confirm estrangement) from their parents, or have proof of living away from parents unaided for three years prior.

Luckily for me I was in a position to get married. But I felt as if it was very unfair because I felt like I was an adult, just under 25 and no longer lived at home anyway.

Therefore in this case it could well be that the son would still be classed as a dependent student. My dad also works in a £50k+ job and I would have received no grant and the minimum loan.

I am not sure what the rules are for the rest of the UK but I would definitely check it out. It is a horrible situation altogether. I couldn't imagine having to go to uni without something to fall back on. Even getting a Christmas job didn't help as my revision time for my January exams disappeared.

I know that medical courses can be incredibly stressful and time consuming and the pressure of having nothing to bolster you should things go wrong would be too much for me. I guess all OP can do is get advice on what the son is entitled too and whether they want to hold off moving in together.

TurnUpForTheBooks_2

Actually, that's a good angle - estrangement. I think I read something somewhere in the regulations. "My mother has gone off with a bloke and moved out and I have no home now to call my own apart from my student digs" - I think there could be a lot of truth in a line like that in a case like this - would you be happy for it to be used OP?

I don't think mainland UK would send social workers to interview anyone about it - not our style - more likely to assign a spy to follow the student at the end of the semester to see where he goes I'd think

southoftheriver

I was a medical student for 7 years. I had no parental support. I worked every year because I didn't have a choice. I passed all of my exams. And yes I was in hospital doing placements every day. I worked in halls where my rent was subsidised and I worked on call overnight as a warden. It sucked but that was life!

I think it would be difficult this young man to lose that support when he is on such a long course especially if the OP can't help, but it can be done.

TerryMI5

antrobus wrote: »

Item 13, click the 'residual income' link - "It depends on your parents' income....if that parent remarries or has a cohabiting partner, their joint income will then be assessed"

This happened to me when my parent moved in with her partner which lost me a lot of money