Do student loans/grants/bursaries count as income?

BoBoDobie

My ex husband gave up work to be a full time uni student. I gather he lives off loans/grants/bursaries - are they classed as income that he'd had to pay something towards his daughter. I've received nothing for 2 years now, my tax credits have been cut and I'm struggling.

He also rents his house out but tells me the rent is only just covering his mortgage and from what I've googled that's permitted. I've emailed the CMS but just got a long generic response back which doesn't answer anything about the student issue at all.

unforeseen

According to https://www.gov.uk/how-child-maintenance-is-worked-out/rates-used-by-the-child-support-agency

4. Rates used by the Child Support Agency

The Child Support Agency (CSA) only handles cases opened before 25 November 2013. New cases should be raised with the Child Maintenance Service.

There are 4 rates of child maintenance used by the Child Support Agency. They’re used with the paying parent’s income to work out a weekly amount of child maintenance. These rates apply to CSA cases opened after March 2003 (‘2003 scheme’ cases).
Nil rate

This means the paying parent pays no child maintenance because they:

• are a student
• are a child aged 16 or under (or 18 or under if they’re in full-time education not higher than A-level)
• are a prisoner
• get an allowance for work-based training or Skillseekers training (in Scotland)
• live in a care home or independent hospital and get help with the fees
• are 16 or 17 years old and get certain benefits - or their partner gets certain benefits

BoBoDobie

Oh dear. As I suspected then. Thank you for the reply

unforeseen

I assumed that you had an open case from before the changeover in Nov 2013

BoBoDobie

No I've never lodged a case with them?

HappyMJ

BoBoDobie wrote: »

No I've never lodged a case with them?

No point emailing CSA then.

Try emailing CMS instead. Different formulas apply.

unforeseen

In that case I'm not sure how different CMS rules are compared to the old CSA rules.

There are more knowledgeable people on here that can give a more definitive answer

ETA
One thing that has changed is that the house rental income is now taken into account so you should be able to get something
http://www.guildfordchambers.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/CMS-for-Family-Lawyers.pdf

BoBoDobie

Sorry it's cms I emailed I meant, im using out of date vernacular. Will check out the link thank you regards the house rental income

HoneyNutLoop

The taxable profit from the rental could be taken into account, if it's more than £2500 a year. However, mortgage interest, letting fees, maintenance and repair costs, certain insurances, etc, can all be eligible deductions from the rental income to determine taxable profits.

CMS base their calculations on gross taxable earned income. Loans definitely aren't counted as income, and I imagine neither grants or bursaries would be either as they are tax exempt.

BoBoDobie

Mmm, it won't be more than that. Thanks HoneyNutLoop

kimplus8

It will be irrelevant what he earns from the house as the fact he is a student exempt him from paying regardless of income. My ex became a full time student ( he was doing an arts degree so only actually 5 hours per week) and he worked full time too- he was awarded a nil amour because he had student status regardless of his work earnings.
It totally sucks but on the plus side he can't stay a student forever!!