Support Help, URGENT !!!!!!!!!

braken2000

:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

I thought i had problems how wrong i was.

My sister is going to uni this year with me and she is a mature student. She applied for her finances ages ago and has now recieved notification. She is 26 and at the moment earns less than £10k a year. She will NOT be working whilst at uni. Her boyfriend who she lives with earns around £26-30k a year. He will not be supporting her at all, nor will her (my) parents.

She has recieved her letter today and she is told she will NOT RECIEVE ANYTHING. She mentioned on her application that she will not be recieving any support from anywhere else. My sister and boyfriend live together, that is it, he does not support her.

Is there anyway she can appeal against this desicion? without fee support, student loan etc. What should she do?

URGENT HELP IS NEEDED as she is going in two weeks time. I have not heard back from SLC or my LEA but my problems can wait.

HELP!

:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

chugalug

This does seem strange. As she's over 25 she is automatically an independent student and as she isnt married, her boyfriends income shouldnt be taken into account. Did she apply for the full loan? You can just apply for the part that isnt means tested which everyone is entitled to as far as I know. The only thing I can think of is whether she's been living abroad in the last 3 years as this would bar her from funding. Is this the case? If not she needs to get back to her Local Authority to find out what the problem is. The student loan company can only pay her what the LA says she is entitled to so she needs to start there. HTH

braken2000

shes been abroad, but only holidays (couple of weeks, here and there, tops). So her boyfriends income should not be taken into account, even though they live together?

thanks for your help

Bossyboots

Did she put her boyfriend's details on the form?

I suspect the problem is that they will deem them to be living together as man and wife. She cannot have it both ways. Either they are living together as a couple as if they were married or they are simply flat sharing (so to speak) and she should have completed the form in that respect. If they are living as a couple then she cannot claim he is not supporting her. If she is not working and he is paying all the household bills then he is supporting her as if she was his wife. While there is no legal definition of a common law spouse, it is accepted that couples who are living together as a couple are living "as if they had married".

This may not be the reason, but I do know that on other official forms you have to declare your partner if you are living together as a couple, regardless of whether you are married and the household income is considered as a joint income.

stuwilky

not to mention the fact that three quarters of the student loan is not related to income, and every student gets its no matter how much their partner/parents earn.

chugalug

Thats the bit I don't understand, everyone's entitled to have the non means tested part regardless of income. Your sister really need to contact her LEA to find out the problem.

braken2000

shes going to. i dont understand it either. If you apply to be means tested could that (sorry cant spell it) jeprodise her chances, i.e. could she get less than the 75%?

stuwilky

braken2000 wrote:

shes going to. i dont understand it either. If you apply to be means tested could that (sorry cant spell it) jeprodise her chances, i.e. could she get less than the 75%?

Nope.

75% is the minimum award.

braken2000

as a sidebar, my mum is losing all her support, is there any other supports she can get, she is divorced, has a mortgage, and earns around £5k a year. thanks for all your help so far.

braken

braken2000

just thought i would provide an update of the situation, here is a PM i sent to Martin...

Hi Martin,

I, well my sister is VERY VERY STUCK. You are the only person who can help at the moment, no one else wants to know. I will try to explain the situation as well as possible.

My sister is 26 and is returning to Uni this year. She has already gone to university in 1998, around then. She paid her fees, well the parents did, and she went to a publically funded uni (UCE in Birmingham). She did not complete her HND there due to illness. She has a salary of around £10k and has handed in her notice so she can go to uni (Huddersfield). She currently lives with her boyfriend who earns around £25-30k a year. He does not support her however, but they do have a joint mortgage.

She applied for her finances and has recieved her notification letter, she will not recieve anything, possibly not even the 75% loan because she has been to a publically funded uni before. She will not have any help with her fees or get a grant. She is reliant on this to be able to go to uni. Her boyfriend will not support her at all, be her at uni or not, and our parents will not help either (not enough money to help either of us).

She contacted her LEA (cumbria) and they dont want to know in a nut shell. They keep fobbing her off and the person she spoke to, keeps speaking to, is rude. She says that she is not eleigible for anything and basically wants to brush her off at the first moment possible.

She also contacted Huddersfield and they are looking into it, but they said they probabaly cant do anything either.

She is really really stuck and cannot go if there is no help available. She has already signed her tenancy agreement for her accomodation and cannot get out of this, she has also handed in her notice for her current job and has confirmed her place at uni. If the LEA/Government wont help it will basically leave her bankrupt.

What should she do? Should she approach her MP, go to the press?

As i said you are the only person we can think of who is clued up on this.

PLEASE HELP

chugalug

Braken2000, how long did your sister study her previous course for? Also did she inform her LEA that she was leaving due to illness at the time? I know you can have at least one false start for higher education before it affects future funding and that at least one full first year doesnt have any effect. Did your sister have funding for longer than this?