Student and universal credit

naomi85

hi. I am recently separated and therefore I am a single mother of 4 with all the household bills and mortgage to pay alone. My husband only needs to give me £150 maintenance a month. I have just received my entitlement for universal credit and they are only giving me £230 a month. They are taking all my student loan into account including grants I get for the children. I would like to know how much of my student loan are they allowed to count as income? Can they take the grants or do they need to disregard those? Should they be disregarding a certain amount of my maintenance loan considering I am single with 4 children or can they count all of it? Thanks in advance for any help and advice 

calcotti

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/universal-credit-and-students#student-income-and-your-universal-credit

Grants
If you’re a full-time higher education student, you may be able to get a non-repayable grant from the government to help with accommodation and other living costs. There are also other types of grants that can help with things like childcare, tuition fees or examination fees. If you are in receipt of Universal Credit and you receive a student grant, it will be fully excluded from the calculation if the grant is for the following:

• tuition and examination fees

• your disability

• expenses for residential study away from an educational establishment

• living away from your usual place of study

• maintenance of dependent adult

• books and equipment

• travel expenses

• childcare costs

poppy12345

Loans that cover tuiton fees and other fees are disregarded. Maintenance loans are classed as income and will reduce your UC £1 for £1.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/universal-credit-and-students#student-income-and-your-universal-credit

calcotti

Information here also https://www.entitledto.co.uk/help/Student-income-Universal-Credit

macman

Why is your maintenance set so low if you have 4 dependent children?

poppy12345

macman said:

Why is your maintenance set so low if you have 4 dependent children?

Maybe the father is on low income. If they weren't working the maintenance would be even lower.

OhWow

naomi85 said:

hi. I am recently separated and therefore I am a single mother of 4 with all the household bills and mortgage to pay alone. My husband only needs to give me £150 maintenance a month.

£150 a month towards his share of the cost of keeping his 4 children, is only £34.61 a week for all 4 children That's means he is only paying just £1.24 per day, per child!

Why is he refusing to pay his share towards keeping his four children???

Galloglass

Why is he refusing to pay his share towards keeping his four children???

The suggested answer was in the post above yours but perhaps you can explain "his share". 

Do you have knowledge of both parties finances and the applicable law with regards to maintenance? If you want to help decide how monies should be calculated, allocated and paid, there are roles available in Plymouth and Hastings.

https://www.glassdoor.co.uk/Overview/Working-at-Child-Maintenance-Service-EI_IE1386629.11,36.htm

OhWow

Galloglass said:

Why is he refusing to pay his share towards keeping his four children???

The suggested answer was in the post above yours but perhaps you can explain "his share". 

Do you have knowledge of both parties finances and the applicable law with regards to maintenance? If you want to help decide how monies should be calculated, allocated and paid, there are roles available in Plymouth and Hastings.

https://www.glassdoor.co.uk/Overview/Working-at-Child-Maintenance-Service-EI_IE1386629.11,36.htm

There is nothing to stop the father taking another job so that he can support his children. It's not about how little the parent has to pay and is all about being a decent parent.

I will never understand why a parent does not want to pay for their child, in this case, 4 children, and wants the welfare state to step in to be the parent.

poppy12345

OhWow said:

Galloglass said:

Why is he refusing to pay his share towards keeping his four children???

The suggested answer was in the post above yours but perhaps you can explain "his share". 

Do you have knowledge of both parties finances and the applicable law with regards to maintenance? If you want to help decide how monies should be calculated, allocated and paid, there are roles available in Plymouth and Hastings.

https://www.glassdoor.co.uk/Overview/Working-at-Child-Maintenance-Service-EI_IE1386629.11,36.htm

There is nothing to stop the father taking another job so that he can support his children. It's not about how little the parent has to pay and is all about being a decent parent.

I will never understand why a parent does not want to pay for their child, in this case, 4 children, and wants the welfare state to step in to be the parent.

I have no idea how you can judge a person when you have no idea of their circumstances. Regardless of how much child support is received it makes no difference to the amount of UC the OP is entitled to because it's disregarded.

OhWow

poppy12345 said:

OhWow said:

Galloglass said:

Why is he refusing to pay his share towards keeping his four children???

The suggested answer was in the post above yours but perhaps you can explain "his share". 

Do you have knowledge of both parties finances and the applicable law with regards to maintenance? If you want to help decide how monies should be calculated, allocated and paid, there are roles available in Plymouth and Hastings.

https://www.glassdoor.co.uk/Overview/Working-at-Child-Maintenance-Service-EI_IE1386629.11,36.htm

There is nothing to stop the father taking another job so that he can support his children. It's not about how little the parent has to pay and is all about being a decent parent.

I will never understand why a parent does not want to pay for their child, in this case, 4 children, and wants the welfare state to step in to be the parent.

I have no idea how you can judge a person when you have no idea of their circumstances. Regardless of how much child support is received it makes no difference to the amount of UC the OP is entitled to because it's disregarded.

And if the father paid a fairer contribution towards the cost of his children, they would have more money.

I can see why the state has to step in and become the parent for some children and  financially support them. What I can't understand is why somebody has had children and is then only going to pay £1.24 for each child per day, towards their food, clothes etc!