Parental financial assessment

kitkatt1982

Hi,
My son has decided to apply for Uni next year. I’ve got a pretty good grasp of how the system works, but not sure how they assess household income. I know they use the previous year’s taxable income but do they take into account other children in the family, and do they take tax credits as income too? I’m returning to work after being at college and with my income, my husband’s and my son’s from his part time job (do they count this as he’s in full time education) our total will be just over 40k. However, we’ve got two younger children at home plus paying maintenance for my step-son. We will qualify for a little tax credit help when I go back but only as we’ll have childcare costs. Realistically, we’re just getting by at the moment and even when I go back to work I’m not going to be able to top up my son’s loan by the amount it says parents are supposed to. My son will continue to work whilst at Uni but I’m concerned the amount of loan he’ll get won’t cover what he needs. Any advice or a pointer in the right direction would be gratefully appreciated. Many thanks

Spendless

Your income and your husband's is taken into account, that's your gross salaries from your jobs. Your son's income isn't taken into account.

Tax credits and child benefit isn't taken into account as income, outgoings including child maintenance isn't taken into account.

I believe they do reduce your salaries by a small amount by taking into account younger children in education, living at home with you. Our son was only eligible for the min so I can't give you details, just remember him asking me if it would increase his loan if we deducted an allowance for his younger sister.


Have you tried the student finance calculator?


https://www.gov.uk/student-finance-calculator

Accommodation is likely to be the most expensive cost he'll have. When you look round the Unis take this into account. One we looked at was eye watering expensive! Really your son needs to start saving from his p-time job now to cover any additional expenses.

sheramber

https://www.ucas.com/finance/student-finance-england/household-income-details-needed

Any questions?

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zagfles

If he's starting in 2019 they'll use your income from the 2017/18 tax year for his first year. Tax credits, child benefit etc don't count and you can deduct stuff like pension contributions. There's a small deduction for younger children of £1130 each. A student's earned income is not counted except in rare cases such as release from a job to study. A student's unearned income is counted.