Does SFE treat cohabiting UG student couples as an independent financial unit ??

TurnUpForTheBooks_2

Does SFE treat cohabiting undergraduate student couples as an independent financial unit ??

Having seen various types of university undergraduate accommodation on offer around the country I am aware that some offer a double bed in rooms or studios designed for two students.

If two students share a double bed and an en suite one might easily presume they cohabit.

If they cohabit and their natural parents are all alive, it seems there will be potentially be six persons in some kind of unofficial extended financial dependency if each student applied as an individual (and made a declaration only relating to their own parents).

So would presenting as two individual students still be "the correct way"? Or once cohabiting commences, irrespective of age, does the couple immediately function solely as an independent financial unit comprising them only (i.e. do parental incomes immediately become irrelevant?).

I have been led to question this as I have learned from another thread of the existence of SSG as opposed to MG where SS = Special Support, M = Maintenance and G = Grant. Both are administered by SFE as an either/or qualification. I understand one difference between SSG and MG is that higher levels of SSG entitlement do not reduce the Maintenance Loan like higher levels of MG do.

Any experts here who can tell us more?

Are many cohabiting undergraduate student couples on the wrong scheme of grant entitlement?

silvercar

Basically, I think students need to be married to be able to ignore parental income in assessing student loans and/ or have dependents of their own.

TurnUpForTheBooks_2

Can you explain your thinking silvercar ?

Since when has marriage still been the only officially recognised self-contained financial unit of association in personal finance or for that matter in family law with or without children?

Or maybe we can try another angle - at 16 you can be married with parental consent but you don't need parental consent if you wish to marry after you reach 18.

And if we take your example where two say 18 year old UG students marry / qualify for SSG type treatment, can you confirm the advantages in additional grants / loans that they might receive over and above the advantage they would instantly gain by both qualifying for maximum supoort upon becoming automatically estranged from/or simply de-linked from their parents?

Erinnire

TurnUpForTheBooks wrote: »

Can you explain your thinking silvercar ?

Since when has marriage still been the only officially recognised self-contained financial unit of association in personal finance or for that matter in family law with or without children?

Or maybe we can try another angle - at 16 you can be married with parental consent but you don't need parental consent if you wish to marry after you reach 18.

And if we take your example where two say 18 year old UG students marry / qualify for SSG type treatment, can you confirm the advantages in additional grants / loans that they might receive over and above the advantage they would instantly gain by both qualifying for maximum supoort upon becoming automatically estranged from/or simply de-linked from their parents?

If they were both estranged from their parents as separate individuals with no dependants. They would each be entitled to the maximum maintenance grant & loan each.

If they could be deemed as a student couple they would be entitled to the Special Support Grant each and the Maximum Maintenance Loan.

I think so anyway, I'm not 100% sure but that is my understanding of it. I'm not sure what qualifies you as a student couple though at 18ish straight from college.

silvercar

TurnUpForTheBooks wrote: »

Can you explain your thinking silvercar ?

Since when has marriage still been the only officially recognised self-contained financial unit of association in personal finance or for that matter in family law with or without children?

Or maybe we can try another angle - at 16 you can be married with parental consent but you don't need parental consent if you wish to marry after you reach 18.

And if we take your example where two say 18 year old UG students marry / qualify for SSG type treatment, can you confirm the advantages in additional grants / loans that they might receive over and above the advantage they would instantly gain by both qualifying for maximum supoort upon becoming automatically estranged from/or simply de-linked from their parents?

Sorry I didn't explain. That is not my interpretation it is the rules that SFE use. I know two young couples who have got married in order to qualify for being assessed on their own income rather than their parents.

Being married is a fact. Proving to SFE that you are estranged from your parents to the extent that it would be unreasonable for the SFE to expect them to contribute is much. much harder.

silvercar

requirements from SFE:

Evidence if you're an 'independent' student under 25

If you're under 25 and want to be classed as 'independent' from your parents, you need to give evidence to prove your 'independent' status. You can do this by sending in evidence that proves one of the following:

that you've supported yourself financially for three years (financially independent)
that you're married, separated or divorced,
that you have dependent children
that your parents are dead
that you're no longer in contact with your parents

To qualify for independent status through estrangement, the student will need to prove that the lack of contact with their parents is permanent. Student Finance England would normally expect the student to have had no contact with their parents for at least 12 months although this may not apply in exceptional circumstances.
A student will not be able to claim independent status just because they do not get on with their parents or because they do not live with them. Similarly, they will not be automatically able to claim independent status because their parents refuse or do not want to provide details of their income

TurnUpForTheBooks_2

Wow! What a wide-open goal we have here. Let's put aside the others just for a moment because they are indirect age discrimination, and require a more eloquent case to be argued, but let's look at the one which deals with adult cohabitation / partnerships i.e. proof of a marriage, separation or divorce. Is there not at least one tautology in those three words of qualification? Don't they all require proof of a past marriage which cut the cord with any parents? Can you have a separation without a marriage? Maybe you can. I remember breaking up with my first girlfriend before I was 18 actually!

What other state benefit entitlement limits qualification by actual marriage, divorce or separation? I am sure there might still be some, but wording like that in any recent statute as at 2013 is surely borrowed directly and carelessly from the dark ages of gender inequality and formalised state religious practice? Who on earth let it through on to the statute books?

silvercar

You are making points and I am just telling you what the rules are. That is why we are talking at cross purposes.

To be clear, if you are married you don't need to be estranged from your parents. I guess the rules have now been changed to include civil partnerships - though I haven't checked.

I also assume the rules were put in place to make things as simple as possible for the administrators at SFE to apply the rules consistently. So if you are married you will have a piece of paper to prove it.

I agree it is totally archaic and it does sound very old century to say that once I am married I am now financially dependent on my husband whereas when only living with someone and/ or engaged I was financially dependent on my parents.

(In answer to your last point I think widows benefit is only payable if you have been married.)

If the goal was so wide open, why hasn't anyone scored?

Florasaurus

I lived with my boyfriend in a one bed flat last year and we just did our student finance as usual, they're only interested in parents financial situations, not your other half

In fact, I never even mentioned to them that I was living with my boyfriend

TurnUpForTheBooks_2

Florasaurus wrote: »

I lived with my boyfriend in a one bed flat last year and we just did our student finance as usual, they're only interested in parents financial situations, not your other half

In fact, I never even mentioned to them that I was living with my boyfriend

That's what I think happens a lot - but in doing so you have surely created a separate "couple household economy" / financial unit that has very little to do with your parents households? If I read silvercar correctly then perhaps a case could be made for more support as two independent students via SSG rather than MG?

The need to prove "marriage" with a bit of paper is out of the ark and should surely be repealed/ruled discriminatory?