Student loan and Universal credit

Anotherusername24

My daughter is returning back to university after many years out due to ill health. She is in receipt of Universal credit and PIP.

She has applied for Student Finance funding, which after a long time has been approved. She applied as Full Time status although the university will tailor make the course to be part time. The university told her to apply as Full Time. She also got the Maintenance loan because it would have counted anyway, in her UC. 

My question is, I know the Student Maintenance loan has to be declared to UC as it counts as 'unearned income', but I am wondering 1) how to word this change of circumstance to UC- is it through the journal? Is it through the 'contact my work coach'? If not where do we update the journal? What are the exact words that should be used to update the journal ?( if anyone could help with the wording I would appreciate it.) 

2) Will UC expect her to be available for work if she is a student? She has already updated in her UC that she is physically unable to work and has 'no commitments to work'. Most of her studies will be online, as agreed with the university. 

3) The maintenance loan is about 6K over 9 Assessment months, and she currently gets about £600 a month UC ( PIP is in addition and is not counted anyway in the calculation as far as I know)..i have estimated that they will reduce her UC by about £500 per month for 9 months. Can anyone work this out for me also please? 

Any help would be appreciated. 

(Sorry Admins I have posted here and on the student forum- please keep in whichever thread is best suited. Thanks)

Alice_Holt

Presumably she is in the LCW or LCWRA group, so there will be no expectation to seek work (as currently?).

If in the LCWRA group she is in receipt of this additional element (c£400 a month)
Will she have housing costs?
Is she over 25? 

Anotherusername24

Thanks for your reply @Alice_Holt.
She is in the LCWRA group and I guess that she receives the additional amount because she is getting about 600 a month UC. 

She lives in supported accommodation due to her health and this is covered by Housing Benefit, which the supported accommodation helped her apply for, I think they said it was a direct application to the council and not done through UC. 
She is 24.

Thanks you again 

NedS

Any student who is in receipt of student finance that is being taken into account for UC, should be manually placed in the No Work Related Requirements (NWRR) group as long as the student finance is taken into account. In the absence of any health conditions, they would be expected to attend appointments and look for work during the long vacation during which no student income is received.

The calculations for student finance deductions for UC are to divide the total amount of considered maintenance loans (after any disregarded amounts) by the number of months (APs) the course runs over, and to deduct £110 from each monthly total.

If the maintenance loan were for £6,000 over 9 months, UC would deduct: £6000/9 - £110 = 556.66/month for 9 months.

The number of months are calculated to include the AP in which the course starts, all APs in between, but not the AP in which the course end date falls. Most commonly this is 7 or 8 months, not 9, but will depend on the claim AP dates and the course dates.

Anotherusername24

Thank you. The loan was recently agreed by SFE, although application was in August. It has taken them this long to finalise. First payment was end of December and then second payment in January. 
The course started in September 23. 

How will this effect the AP's? Are the APs backdated?

Also any help with the wording of what to write in journal would help.

Thanks all

NedS

Yes, there will be an overpayment of UC in the APs since the course started.

Has your daughter advised UC on their journal that they have returned to University and are in receipt of student finance? If not, they should do that straight away. They will be asked to provide copies of all the student finance documentation showing any loans and grants they may be entitled to and/or have taken out. UC will advise them of exactly which documents they will need to provide.

Anotherusername24

Hi,
No she hasn't advised them yet because the return to university was a 'soft return' incase she got ill again and then the university would defer again. They gave her the option of doing this up till beginning of Semester 2 (Jan 22nd '24). 
And secondly, the maintenance loan was only authorised a few weeks ago, and even then, due to a mismatch between student records dept at university and student finance, the loan was actually cancelled and they sent letters asking for all the money to be repaid! This is only relevant in terms of delay of notification to UC, because it has been sorted out now. 

Wording for the journal? 
Would this be ok? Do I need to add any information about medical health and LCWRA status? 


"I have started a 1 year full time course at university. I have been awarded a student maintenance loan of £X. The course started in October 23. I have received £X payment on (date) and £X payment on (date). The final payment of £X will be paid on (date). "


Thanks for helping

tomtom256

They will need to see the learning agreement and full breakdown of the student finance, so they can calculate the amount of student income to take into account on her claim.