Bursary - Residual Household Income 6 November 2019 at 5:53PM in Student MoneySaving 3 replies 2K views

RueyE

Hi,
We were wondering if anyone out there is able to provide any additional information on the following
We are a low income household, normally less than £35k, however in the tax year being used to calculate this years' household income, it was affected by my wife's redundancy pay, of about £4.5k. This has meant according to Student Finance England (SFE) we have had an income (note I'm not stating taxable income) of just over £35k.
The redundancy pay being less than £30k is NOT taxable income.
York university web site states the following for it's bursay allocation, '£2,000 in the first year and £1,000-£1,100 in subsequent years. Residual household income must be £35,000 or less.'
Again on the York University website it states the following
Residual household income is defined as '*Residual household income is the gross taxable household income minus; pension contributions, and an allowable deduction of £1,130 for each other child or eligible student in the household. If you are under 25 the household income is normally that of your parents, or the parent you usually live with and their partner. If you are over 25 this would be the income of your partner.'

SFE will not pass on to York the true taxable income amount (which should be about £31.5k), they will only submit the total income value (around £36k), that they have used to calculate the student loan element.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

RueyE

Hi,
Yes we have previously (a few months ago) contacted York finance department, when we realised that the wording on their web site meant we would qualify for one of their bursaries.
They informed us at that point that they can only work with the figures supplied to them by SFE.
It has taken about two months of submitting paperwork, evidence and discussions for SFE to finally admit they have to include the non taxable element of our income because this is how they calculate the student loan figures. We don't have a problem with how SFE do their loan calculations.
However in light of the fact the SFE processes do not allow them to differentiate between taxable income and overall income, and are seemingly unwilling to do so, then the figures supplied to York will include the non-taxable element.
We have tried to contact York this morning, in order to discuss the situation, and await their response when they call back.
I will provide an update when we hear something.

Starrystarrynight1

Redundancy payment is a taxable source of income, it just has the equivalent of the tax free allowance, up to £30K. Look at it this way, your entire salary is used in the assessment, they don't exclude the first £12500. It's the same with redundancy pay. Sorry, I know it isn't what you want to hear. The only thing I can think of is, if your total household income in the current tax year (19/20) is expected to be at least 15% less than the income in the tax year SFE used for the assessment, you can request a Current Year Income Assessment. You'll need to verify this at the end of this tax year and any necessary adjustments will be made to the amount awarded.

RueyE

Hi StarrystarryNight,

Thank you for this explanation, that does make sense in what you are saying, despite not necessarily a good one for us.
Interesting that it doesn't show on any official HMRC tax summary documents, or P60 documents for that year.
Why SFE couldn't have told us this vital detail is a little beyond me?

Anyway we unfortunately don't qualify for the 15% drop in this years' income, so miss out on that option too.
It will just be a case of tightening our belts a little bit more than normal.