Student maintance loan

oluniaa1729

Hi ! Is student maintance loan repayable ?If yes why does it count as income for universal credit calculation?

visidigi

oluniaa1729 said:

Hi ! Is student maintance loan repayable ?If yes why does it count as income for universal credit calculation?

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/universal-credit-and-students

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

marcia_

oluniaa1729 said:

Hi ! Is student maintance loan repayable ?If yes why does it count as income for universal credit calculation?

 Yes it is repayable
Yes it counts as income for income based benefits. Repayable or not it us income 
Most students can not claim universal credit 

Rubyroobs

I guess if it wasn't  deducted from UC then people would just live off their full UC whilst studying whilst other students who didn't claim UC have thousands of pounds of student debt to pay back. How on earth would that be fair?

Spoonie_Turtle

It's simply that UC is pretty much a last resort / safety net, and people are expected to make use of any means available to support themselves, then claim UC if they don't have (enough) means to do that.  That's why contributory benefits are deducted from UC, it's why pension income is deducted, it's why people are expected to live off capital above £16,000, etc. 

As a student the first line of supporting oneself is student finance / loans / any money available, second is working, and after that is UC which is why only certain groups of people can claim UC whilst studying full-time - their circumstances make it difficult to work to support themselves whilst studying.

andrewmp

oluniaa1729 said:

Hi ! Is student maintance loan repayable ?If yes why does it count as income for universal credit calculation?

Because that's what the regulations say. I personally agree it's unfair, but this is the wrong place for opinion.

NedS

oluniaa1729 said:

Hi ! Is student maintance loan repayable ?If yes why does it count as income for universal credit calculation?

The reason is that UC was never intended to support students - that's what the maintenance loan is for.

However, there are a few circumstances where students are able to claim UC (loan parents, members of a couple), and to prevent them from doing so (e.g, where there is also a child) would unfairly penalise them. So the system had to devise a way to take their student income into account whilst still allowing them to receive support for the child/partner etc.

The system devised is actually very fair to students as there is a large monthly disregard (of £110/month) meaning that not all of their student income is taken into account such that the student ends up with more money each month than if they were either just claiming UC (not a student) or just receiving student loans/grants as around £1000/year of their student income is disregarded.

HillStreetBlues

Also remember a student loan may never have to be paid back.