Postgraduate loan/grant.

minimad1970

My son has enroled on a postgraduate course but needs some advice about loans. He's been entitled to ESA for a year but the payments have only just started due to the amount of his student loan payments. He's in the support group for ESA and also receives low rate DLA both care and mobility. When he was doing his degree he received £7898 a year which was made up of a maintenance loan and a grant.

The fees for the postgrad course are £6950 which is payable from a loan of £10,609. Does anyone know if there are any grants available for this type of course, or if he would receive either all or some of his ESA? Thanks for any help.

[Deleted User]

Any grants would come from research councils, there are non from government.

Any loan he takes out is considered income and could wipe out his ESA so he'd need to consider working part time alongside his course.

minimad1970

_shel wrote: »

Any loan he takes out is considered income and could wipe out his ESA so he'd need to consider working part time alongside his course.

He tried to work part time whilst doing his degree but had to give up his job as two lots of stress was too much for him. Thanks for your advice though.

I've just found this on the Disability Rights website so he might still receive some of his ESA.
Income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)

As a full-time student, you can only claim income-related ESA if you also receive DLA or PIP. You'll be treated as having a limited capability for work without having to pass the work capability assessment. You may still have to complete an ESA50 form and attend a face to face assessment but this should be only to determine whether you meet the criteria for the work-related activity group or the support group.

If you're entitled to a postgraduate loan 30% of it will be considered as income (even if you don't take it out) and the amount of income-related ESA will be reduced.

[Deleted User]

Brilliant, I didn't know it was only 30% so he should stil get some money from his ESA.

Callie22

_shel wrote: »

Any grants would come from research councils, there are non from government.

It depends on the course - the only full-time postgrad courses that are funded by the Research Councils are PhDs, they don't fund Master's level courses at all. People also get confused about how Research Council funding actually works in that there's no point contacting the Research Councils about it as if you do they will just tell you to go and look at findaphd or similar. The Research Councils give funding to universities for PhDs and then it's the universities themselves that decide how many funded studentships they'll offer and in what areas. You can't apply for *any* course and then try to get Research Council funding, sadly a lot of people think that's how it works but that's the wrong way round!