Universal Credit and student income

proudmummyandsudentnurse

Hello all,
I'm a student nurse and get a maintenance loan and grant, we were up until last week claiming child and working tax credit, however am now on universal credit.  I've been for my first appointment today and my work coach has said that all my maintenance loan and part of my grant will be classed as income and will be taken off what we are entitled to from universal credit, which means that we are going to be £800 worse off a month than what we were when we claimed child and working tax credit.  Does this sound right?

Caz3121

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/universal-credit-and-students
it appears that some elements that were ignored for tax credits are not for universal credit
https://www.nus.org.uk/en/advice/money-and-funding/what-tax-credits-can-i-get-as-a-student/#4

[Deleted User]

Why did you move to universal credit? 

huckster

Not sure how you have worked out the £800 you say you will be worse off.
What are your basic UC entitlements.
Single claim/couple claim ?
are you under/over 25 ?
Housing rent  per month ?
Social rented sector such as Housing association or a private rented property ?
How many children ?
Earnings average per month (for you and partner if a couple ?
The student finance deduction is worked out on the maximum maintenance loan you can obtain and possibly the grant ( what is the grant for ?)   If you receive a Special Support Loan or Grant, this will not be deducted from your Universal Credit. This provides help towards costs of study, such as for books, equipment, travel etc.   The amount that is taken into account is divided by how many assessment periods (AP) are between the start date of your course and the AP before your course year ends.  They will then apply a £110 disregard to the amount for each AP.
Use a Benefit Calculator such as Turn2us oe Entitledto to calculate your basic UC entitlement and then come back with the information.  If you can then provide AP dates, start date of course and the end date of the years course, plus how much student finance UC will be consider, we can work out what your likely UC monthly awards will be.

Alice_Holt

Have a look at your notification from the student grant. It should say what would be disregarded as far as benefits go.
This would include elements because your have responsibility for a child, and the element of the grant for travel, books, etc. There is also a disregard,
Because this is complicated, it may be that your UC work coach has misunderstood how your grant should be treated. Do you have a student welfare officer who could help you? 

  https://www.gov.uk/guidance/universal-credit-and-students
https://www.gingerbread.org.uk/information/benefits-tax-credits-and-universal-credit/if-youre-planning-to-study/benefits-youre-studying/

Alice_Holt

Edit: Duplicated post removed.

proudmummyandsudentnurse

_shel said:

Why did you move to universal credit? 

Because we had a change on circumstances, so had no choice.

proudmummyandsudentnurse

huckster said:

Not sure how you have worked out the £800 you say you will be worse off.
What are your basic UC entitlements.
Single claim/couple claim ?
are you under/over 25 ?
Housing rent  per month ?
Social rented sector such as Housing association or a private rented property ?
How many children ?
Earnings average per month (for you and partner if a couple ?
The student finance deduction is worked out on the maximum maintenance loan you can obtain and possibly the grant ( what is the grant for ?)   If you receive a Special Support Loan or Grant, this will not be deducted from your Universal Credit. This provides help towards costs of study, such as for books, equipment, travel etc.   The amount that is taken into account is divided by how many assessment periods (AP) are between the start date of your course and the AP before your course year ends.  They will then apply a £110 disregard to the amount for each AP.
Use a Benefit Calculator such as Turn2us oe Entitledto to calculate your basic UC entitlement and then come back with the information.  If you can then provide AP dates, start date of course and the end date of the years course, plus how much student finance UC will be consider, we can work out what your likely UC monthly awards will be.

I have no idea what we will be getting until we get our first statement on 12th March, so I don’t know what elements we will be getting.

My work coach said they would take of about £1000 a month off me due to my student loan and grant I’m getting, which obviously wasn’t taken off when we got tax credits.  I was able to apply for an advance and my work coach said that would give me an idea of what our monthly amount would be, which is about £200 more than what we got with tax credits which is where the £800 a month comes from.