How is parental Income calculated for student loan eligibility?

michaels

Apologies, this has probably been asked and answered many times, but is there somewhere official that describes how parental income is assessed for student loans and the 25k limit for full loan eligibility?

Areas of relevance to me are:
The treatment of pension contributions
The treatment of pension draw down, taxed and tax free elements
The treatment of savings interest income
The treatment of 'rent a room' income

Thanks

tacpot12

These webpages are useful:
Student finance applications | Low Incomes Tax Reform Group
Notes to help you complete your application for student finance

This form: Assessment of Financial Circumstances For parents and partners of students requires you to confirm if you have any income that you haven't declared to HMRC, e.g. because you don't complete a self-assessment return and you are within the Savings Allowance or you use the Rent a Room Scheme.

It also requires you to confirm the total pension contributions you have made in the relevant period, but it explains that these reduce your household income by the amount of the contribution (which is good news). 

The second link above confirms that you need to use your P60 to determine what your total pension income was. This means that you will have to declare your Tax-Free income from your pension. e.g. You receive a payment of £1000 from your pension, if £250 is tax-free and £750 is tax, you would still report £1000 as your income.

michaels

Thank you - elsewhere I have seen varying advice over whether TFLS from a pension is (should be) counted or not!  Surely TFLS and UFPLS tax free element should not be counted differently?!