problem student 20 this year

gunton10

i am currently on income support as i am a full time student but i will be 20 this year. i am unable to claim EMA or ALG as i am over 19 and have a A-level. i received a letter today saying as of my birthday this year i will not be able to receive Income support i am also receiving housing benafits and councel tax credit so dont pay council tax. I have tried to call them today but they are not open till 10 and am away befor 10.

I am just wondering if anyone knows what i can do. i though i could stay at college till 21 and them im of to uni i just missed out this year so i have to do another and i have gained sponsorship as well.

Any posts will help so if you know something please tell me.

cheers a gunton

timnicebutdim_2

IMO I think probably the best thing you could do is work the year before you go to uni and that way you get some valuable work experience and maybe some time to save a bit of cash for when you need it at uni. This is what I did and it helped when applying for jobs as it showed I had both work and uni experience.

gunton10

i am at college 6 form and i have had to do a third year. thus i wont get anything as of november to help me. i have rent to pay, bills etc and at the moment this is covered by income support.

i will be off to uni next year as i have a sponsorship and this will only be for next year and im not worryed about funding for uni.

its now im worried about. i will have to do 23hours of work at £5 an hour in order to pay all my outgoings and these 23hours will have to be around my college work. i dont think its really possible for me to do it. so i need to find out if there is any support for me available.

timnicebutdim_2

I see, sorry i misread the 1st post. I know it may only make a small difference but I think you may have a good case to phone the EMA helpline (0808 1016219). I am an EMA Co-Ordinator at a College and we have people here who have had it for 3 years and some are over the age of 19. It may be because they are disabled but I'm sure that in certain circumstances the EMA will allow an additional year even though your over 19. Maybe it's worth a call...

Good luck!

gunton10

i will give it a go the person at my college actually said i cant get it and i know i cant get ALG as i have a level 3 qualification although it was turned down.

gunton10

EMA a no no calling connexions now

gunton10

got no where at all. ANY help would be really good if anyone can think of anything.

the job center basically said get lost get a part time job. but was a bit harsher than that the woman didnt care i was doing somthing with my life and not becoming a bum.

gunton10

NO help at all and im the one trying to do something with my life

stevenronaldson

I'm not sure if this will work with you as I'm unsure of your circumstances & how your college operate, but I faced paying the rent and such on my own in the last while of my college course and, like you, was told that there wasn't really anything that could be done (housing benefits not being available to full time students, etc) so I talked to my tutor and asked if there was anything the college might be able to do.

She informed me that the college had emergency funding available for cases like these & was given a form which asked me for some details such as my personal details, household income/outgoings etc and within a short while they'll calculate how much they think they can give you & give a cheque or deposite the money directly into your account.

Does this sound familiar? Is it something you think your college might offer? If so, I'd recommend you go for it - I felt a bit embarrassed asking at first, but I was awarded about £450 which obviously helped a lot when it came to paying the bills.

Unfortunatly that's a short-term solution but it's the only one I was really able to find on my own - didn't know about sites like this, so maybe someone will come along and will be able to help more.

If you really can't cope though, are moving back home and/or finding a room mate out of the question?

gunton10

i am not in contact with family and dont know where they are. this is why i was on income support but i have had the £400 of college and its paid termly so i get 200 one term and 100 the next 2 and this only helps with a tiny amount of the bills and thats food. But i am still i need of 400 ish as my rents 390 and that is the cheapest i can get it in my area.

stevenronaldson

Ah I see, then sorry I don't think I can help you. I'll be playing full rent again pretty soon (I start uni next week) and I'll be looking for some good money saving tips on here for a while to help out.

My rent is slightly less at around £360 per month, but that's still a lot given my circumstances. Do you have any reliable friends that you could get into another room that might be able to chip in? I've had the idea to try that out, but I've still got an okay amount of money to do me for a short while so long as I cut spending a bit.

At the moment I'm around £90 per week for rent, £10-12 on food, £10 gas/electricity, £7.50 for the internet and soon to be about £10 travel per week, total: £127, so most luxuries have been pretty much cut out. If I find someone to live here as well, that's going to come down to about £73.75 - that's an extra £213 in your pocket every month if you have the option.

As for what the government can do for you, I don't know. When I first signed my tenancy agreement, I asked about what support I would be entitled to and the answer was roughly "nothing while you're a student" which seems a bit rubbish, doesn't it?