University finance application divorced parents 5 October 2017 at 10:33AM in Student MoneySaving 9 replies 3.9K views

Tribbles72

Hi
Im new to this and I'm after advice about student finance. I have lived with my partner for year and next year his daughter will be going to university. He and his ex have joint custody but she does spend more time at Mums and everything is registered at her address - gp, school, child benefit etc.
The ex-wife earns double what my partner earns(he earns under 20000 a year) and they are wanting to put my partners details down as main parent on finance application so daughter gets more financial help.
In reading up on this it would seem that as we live together my wage would also be taken into account and our wages combined would be more than ex wife wage.
My partner says he just won't disclose that we are living together so won't have to declare my wage. He thinks it's unfair that i would be expected to contribute.
I feel anxious about this (i can be a bit too honest at times!) What checks do they make on the parents, could they find out that i am living there? Are we breaking the law? I really don't want to get into trouble, but at the same time I want daughter to get all the help she can get. Has anyone else done this?

I should also point out my partner was a high earner until he lost his job 5 years ago. Money has been a real struggle for him since and i know that he feels really guilty about not being able to provide more for his kids. He's a great Dad and has a brilliant relationship with them. I think he feels that this would be his way of providing financially. Sorry if I'm rambling!

silvercar

Clearly the correct procedure is for the daughter to use her Mum's address if that is where she spends the majority of her time.

Does her Mum have a live- in partner? If so, his income would also need to be declared.

If the daughter decided to live with you and her Dad, then that has implications for child benefit and maintenance payments. (At least in the first instance while she is still in school). The correct thing is then for both you and her dad's income to be declared.

If she only declared her Dad as sole earner in the household where she lives, then her maintenance grant would be assessed on his income. If it was discovered that there was an undeclared income, it would be the daughter that would pay the penalty as the student loan company could demand repayment or claw back the excess from future years loan.

I don't know how much checking goes on, but anyone could report and validating electoral roll / hmrc records would soon lead to discovery.

Ed-1

silvercar wrote: »

I don't know how much checking goes on, but anyone could report and validating electoral roll / hmrc records would soon lead to discovery.

In addition to this they also run the application data provided against fraud prevention agency Synectic Solution's database National SIRA.

If a sponsor has put their marital status as single, this highlights whether any joint applications for credit have been made which could indicate that they are living with a partner.

sheramber

You do realise it is a loan , not a grant. The more his daughter gets the more she has to potentially pay back.

Taiko

Put down the mother as the parental household, otherwise it's a fraudulent application. It will be found it.

74jax

Why would you be expected to contribute? Contribute to what?

The loan is on household income. It's a loan.

My DD lives with me or household income because of my partner means she gets the minimum loan. She looks at it as she had less to pay back.

The loan (this year) is just £500 less than her rent, as she is out of halls now. She works over summer and Christmas to make up the short fall.

Yes if I lived alone she could have around 8k loan, but she didn't need it as she had a Saturday job and now has much less to pay back.

Tribbles72

Thanks all for the replies. It has helped and she is now going to register at her mums address, I don't think the ex-wife is happy but then she wasn't the one commiting fraud! I feel much better now I know we are doing the correct and legal thing. Just to clarify though if it had of gone solely on my partners wage which is under 20k a year she would have had £8000 a year, £4000 of which she would not have had to pay back. By putting her Mums address she will get around £5000, all of which she has to pay back.
Thank you again:)

Tribbles72

Lower earners do get some of the money as a grant. If it was only on my partners wage she would get around 8k a year and only have to pay half back. It's one of the reasons he wanted to do it so she would have less debt on graduating.

Lingua

Did they government not completely scrap the maintenance grant in favour of full maintenance loan?

Either way, make sure that your partner and the student's mother know that they will need to contribute to her studies - the reason she gets less is because the govt expect parents to contribute.

I'm a post-2012 student and I strongly believe that a student should take every penny they can, simply because it's unlikely that a graduate will ever be able to repay the loan.

The fact that student loans for legal adults are based on their parents' incomes is really quite silly, especially for the many flaws. Namely, divorced parents mean a student can simply choose the one with the least income! If you live with neither parent but aren't supporting yourself (e.g., living with another family member), that too is not taken into account. It's a flawed system, and probably costs more to manage than if they just gave every student a flat optional loan/grant.

Lingua

sheramber

Tribbles72 wrote: »

Lower earners do get some of the money as a grant. If it was only on my partners wage she would get around 8k a year and only have to pay half back. It's one of the reasons he wanted to do it so she would have less debt on graduating.

only if their course started before 1 August 2016.