Student Finance when you have more than one child at University

zagfles

RayDan said:

Hi,

I Have two children currently at University with another starting next year. Last year I was unemployed so was able to get full support. However, I am now employed and confident that when means tested we will only qualify for the minimum amount. 

There doesn't seem to be consideration that I have to support two/three students or my outgoings which are high with little to no disposable income on a monthly basis.

Any guidance appreciated, I just do not no what we're going to do?

Thanks

So did you do a current year assessment last year? If you did, they'll use that income for that year and the next 2 years.

Normally, SFE use income from 2 years ago eg for the 2020/21 academic year they'll use parental income in the 2018/19 tax year. But if your income is significantly lower (a fall of at least 15%), you can ask them to use 2020/21 income instead. From your post, you've presumably done that? If you have, they'll use 2020/21 income for the 2021/22 and 2022/23 academic years too.

Then in 2023/24 ac year they'll use your income in 2021/22 and so on.

I'm presuming you're in England, other parts of the UK have different rules.

Happy_Sloth

We have the same issue i have 2 boys at Uni atm,  it also didn't account for the year of Covid where i didn't work because the assessment was done based on last years wages    

Sadly it's a flawed system, the brackets arn't every big and actually alot of people where both parents earn a modest wage fall into the higher bracket.  Our income is reasonable but i wouldn't say we where rich,  but because both mum and dad work we do fall into the highest band. 

im expected to pay £5k each child to top up their loan.   With the best will in the world i do not have £10k disposable income   per year to help support them.  

Spendless

Happy_Sloth said:

We have the same issue i have 2 boys at Uni atm,  it also didn't account for the year of Covid where i didn't work because the assessment was done based on last years wages    

Sadly it's a flawed system, the brackets arn't every big and actually alot of people where both parents earn a modest wage fall into the higher bracket.  Our income is reasonable but i wouldn't say we where rich,  but because both mum and dad work we do fall into the highest band. 

im expected to pay £5k each child to top up their loan.   With the best will in the world i do not have £10k disposable income   per year to help support them.  

I  *think* if your salary decreased by a lot you could ask for an assesment on the current year (they'd definately know this on the student board) 

I lost my job within a week of the first lockdown and haven't worked since. Knocking my salary off though doesn't make a difference. A company car plus fuel means we add £10k onto husband's salary,

I shouldn't have had an overlapping year at all. I have 3 years between them and spent their adolescence onwards congratulating myself on how 'clever' I'd been (complete chance though, not planned -lol) then son got poor sixth form results at a college I'd been against him going to in the first place and he ended up on a foundation year. The only thing I will say is I am thankful he isn't have to f-time job hunt just now, maybe things will be better in another 12 months. 

tooldle

I wonder if there is some misinterpretation here on what Uni’s say about work. I work in HE and we do have regulations which govern employment of students internally. For us students are here to study first and foremost. Any employment with us is secondary and time limited. We have no control whatsoever over what students choose to do in terms of external employment. Some courses will advise their students to limit employment to improve their chances of success, equally many students do manage to work and achieve great results. I personally know students studying graduate entry medicine (compressed course with only 8 weeks of vacation time), all of whom hold other jobs. 
Edited to add - Overseas students on a tier 4 visa are allowed to work upto 20hrs per week under the terms of their visa. Drawing a parallel UK students should reasonably be able to manage similar, assuming work is available.