Problem with paying rent in May

SamGB

Just a little background to my problem at the moment:

I'm currently in 2nd year at St Andrews University. I am an English person living in Scotland now: I get about £3 000 , about 1/3 of that is actually a grant from the Scottish Executive from Edinburgh and the rest is provided by the Student Loans Company in Glasgow.

In January, they'd looked in more detail at my parents' finances and decided I'm only allocated to a smaller amount of grant. It is now May and that has left me slightly short in terms of paying the rent. Although I'm working 12 hours a week in Boots, I'm still going to be short about £200 or so of the £1 000 I'll need for this part of the rent. What options are there for me?

Kind Regards

Sam

dmg24

Could you not get some extra hours at work, or another part time job? You should be able to get the £200 from 40 hours extra work, so an extra ten hours a week?

Do you rent privately or are you in halls?

SamGB

The Boots store is a pretty small one, so no chance of extra hours. I'm in halls, and one of the most expensive, but at the time they were the only ones available.... i was wondering whether there's some kind of poor fund or something...

bestpud

You have a month to get some cash together so could you cut back at all in other areas?

Also, are you able to ebay any stuff you no longer need? Perhaps old textbooks?

Does your uni have a hardship fund like english unis do?

You'd have to provide details of your circumstances - bank statements, bills etc but may get a non-repayable grant if they consider you are in financial hardship.

Willowx

Talk to either the student union or student services at your university atleast one of them should have a hardship fund who can either provide you with some assitance or have a better idea of where you can get it.

QuirkyChemistry

As you're in halls then you hopefully stand a better chance than with a landlord. Firstly I would see if there is a hardship fund you could apply to (ask the students union). If you have no luck, then talk to the accommodation office. See if they would be willing for you to pay as much rent as you can up front and pay the remainder by a certain date (explaining your circumstances to them). If that doesn't work could your family give you a loan? My only other suggestions are cut back on any unnecessary spending and try to increase your income - eBay, psychology studies, temporary work through your uni or an agency, anything to increase the cash. Good luck.

melancholly

http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/students/money/Financialdifficulties/Hardshipfund/
http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/students/money/Moneyclinic/

have a search on your uni website - there is lots of info there that will be specific to you so is likely to be the best place to start. i picked out 2 pages that look like the best for you to read, but another option is to try and extend your overdraft (which may happen on a faster timescale than being awarded money - that may take a little while for money to actually land in your account, assuming your application is successful).

brettcta

is it not worth opening a student account and using the overdraught facility? barclays gave me £200 there and then interest free when i opened it.

Broke_Student

Have you been to see the finance administrator for you university halls? In my experience it is very easy to get payment referred if you go in personally.