Student Accomadation Nightmare

Andypandyboy

Just a thought and maybe not for this year, but if your husband did a salary sacrifice pension contribution to an amount which effectively lowered his salary (very understandable and sensible given your circumstances) then she would get a higher loan.

The figure is minimum £3700 for living out though, so she should get that which will go towards, though like us, not pay the whole rent.

frogga

I don't think my conscience would allow me to encourage her to ask for a hardship fund. That's a bit of a cheek as we aren't really in hardship, not with an income of £52,000. It's just that we were paying off the mortgage as I'd explained.


It is uni accommodation. It is their Halls, but it's run by a totally separate company called Fresh Student Living.

frogga

Again thank you Andy. Something to think about. I'm hoping I have an old rich auntie I'd forgotten about that may save the day...

SeduLOUs

On a parental income of £54,000 (that you stated earlier) and making some assumptions, it churns out £4,580 per year loan: https://www.gov.uk/student-finance-calculator/y/2015-2016/uk-full-time/9000.0/away-outside-london/54000.0/no/none-of-the-above

(all of the information I entered is on the page, and you can edit it if I got any of it wrong...)

Sounds to me like the student loan application forms are wrong and need resolving ASAP.

juno

frogga wrote: »

Thanks Juno. We've been told about the 'taking over of rent' option. If she can find someone to take over her flat, then she can give it up. But there are loads of flats empty, so not a huge demand? She is trying this option though.


Andy, Tadpole didn't do any of this the easy way! She only decided at the very last minute she wanted to go to uni! She applied at the end of August, and rushed though without thinking I'm afraid. She has said herself she should have waited a year and considered everything. But, it won't kill us. And there is no point in saying 'I told you so'. It won't help will it?

You need to read the contract very carefully. There might be an option to terminate the contract if she drops out, and if she was considering waiting year that might work out cheaper (and would allow her to get a job and save up).

If not, it's coming up to Christmas. Argos have already started advertising for Christmas temps, so I'm sure others will be similar. A few hours a week would easily add up to over £200 a month, which would start to make up the shortfall. Then if she can pick up extra hours over the holidays it might just about be doable.

The SLC helpline staff often make things up. It's really not too late for a change in circumstances, especially if she only applied through Clearing. She does need to get a move on though, because they can be slow about the assessment.

frogga

Thank you Sedulous for doing that. That was the amount we thought she would get when we did it, but it isn't? Student Finance have been a nightmare. The people who answer the phone are VERY KIND and PATIENT and TRY to help, but we just go round and round and never get anywhere!


Thanks Juno but she is working already. She works for Sainsbury's and starts at 4am working until 9/9.30. In lectures by 10am. She's got lectures all day, and has picked up 16 hours extra at the weekend. However, the more she earns, the less she'll get as a loan, so she may be absolutely killing herself, working early starts, uni all day, working all weekend, studying in the evening. etc. I know it's supposed to be hard, and I know there will be stories of others who worked harder doing 10 jobs just to feed themselves.


She doesn't want the loan for free. It's not a benefit. She wants to contribute, she wants to pay it back once earning, she just wants to be able to borrow it in the first place without the burden being on us?

silvercar

However, the more she earns, the less she'll get as a loan,

Where do you get that information from? Student can earn what they can, it is parental income that determines the size of the loan, so her earnings have now effect on the loan.

Keep pushing student finance, she should be getting more than £900 a term.

frogga

Thanks Silver Car. On the form it said 'Total Family Income including your own' and the SF helpline said if she picked up more hours, and therefore earned more, she'd be entitled to borrow less. I thought that was a given?

GwylimT

frogga wrote: »

Thanks Silver Car. On the form it said 'Total Family Income including your own' and the SF helpline said if she picked up more hours, and therefore earned more, she'd be entitled to borrow less. I thought that was a given?

Nope, my son worked almost fulltime as a HCA while doing his degree and it didn't have any impact. If you include the students income it still doesn't have any bearing on the loan amount if they are deemed a dependent. This is also quite clear on the form, unless they have drastically changed since my son made his last form.

She receive around £3,400 per year based on your earnings and living at home. If she had stated she was living away from home she would get about £1000 more per year.

merlin68

You can also asses without using parents income and get 65% of the loan dds boyfriend did this and got £5000 a year even though his parents earn 90k.
DD her accommodation in halls is 7k a year and her loan was 9k, im having to give her £100 a month for food and clothes as after paying halls, her phone, and transport to uni she would'nt have enough for food.
It does say on dd's contract that you have to pay for the whole year even if you move out.
http://www.sfengland.slc.co.uk/include-household-income-in-your-student-finance-application.aspx