Grants, loans and money stuff

Tetsuko

I've been unemployed for aaages. I've got fed up having no job prospects so I applied to go back to university. I've just been offered and accepted an unconditional place.

Now I've had time to recover from the happiness and excitement I'm really scared. I did two years of a uni course a few years ago but through a variety of circumstances and external pressures beyond my control I couldn't finish it

Now I'm scared that my LEA might not give me any support. I am a mature student. I've been unemployed since last September, I have no prospects and I feel that the future will be looking pretty grim for me if this door forward is slammed in my face.

If my LEA refuses to help and prevents me from getting any further student loans is there anywhere else I can consider for funding before regretfully taking the long slippery slope into further bank debt or even worse have to pull out from the course before it even begins? Does anyone know if a bank will seriously consider loaning a student the level of funds required to pay for student fees and living expenses?

Any advice will be much appreciated.

freebie_junkie

do you recieved hb, ctb, jsa etc? if so, you can study part time whilst still recieving your benefits, your fees are paid and you get £250 pa for books and travel etc. The LEAs usually let you have 1 false-start of one year, but i belive taht you can appeal for more than one.

I'm pretty sure this is still teh case.

student_advisor

You should be eligible for some funding from your LA as they take the length of your course plus 1 year minus any years of funding already taken. So for a 3 year BA for example, you'd be allocated 4 years of funding then they'd take off your 2 years to leave 2 years. The only sticky bit is I can't remember if you get the funded years first or whether you would need to fund the first year and get funding for years 2 & 3.

You can also request all 3 (or however many you need) years of funding from your LA if you had extenuating circumstances for dropping out last time and could provide evidence.

If you get no luck from your LA, you could apply for charitable help as there are some charities who support HE for those ineligible for normal funding. Speak to your uni's student advisor for welfare/funding for advice on what's available for your area/subject.

Emmzi

when you say 'go back to uni' - have you been before? this will affect your eligibility.

seaweasel

Emmzi, see post directly above you. Tetsuko, as others have mentioned, you will get funding but you'll probably have to pay fees for at least first year, and maybe first and second year. If you didn't complete your first degree then you'll get funding for your 3rd and 4th years at least.

Tetsuko

Thanks muchly for the advice. The waiting to find out and not knowing what is going to happen is furstrating. I phoned up the LEA and all they could tell me is that they are processing my application for student support at the mo.

It's just the thought of being in my second week of my course only to find that I'm not being funded and then having the prospect of finding thousand of pounds out of nowhere which is stressing me.