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

wallace_3

Best thing to do is ring the LEA and ask them to talk through your sisters application, including why she gets no support. If you discover a mistake has been made, you should be able to rectify it quite easily.

Also, there is a calculator here:
http://www.entcalc.slc.co.uk/

you can enter your financial details, and the calculator will give you a rough estimate of what support you are entitled to - compare this with what your LEA are telling you.

Savvy_Sue

wallace wrote:

you can enter your financial details, and the calculator will give you a rough estimate of what support you are entitled to - compare this with what your LEA are telling you.

But I suspect the problem is the period of previous study making braken's sister ineligible for anything now...

sockospice

Savvy_Sue wrote:

But I suspect the problem is the period of previous study making braken's sister ineligible for anything now...

Yes. I know it can vary by LEA, but ours makes it crystal clear that if you have previously studied, you're not entitled to anything else. No exceptions.

In the meantime, she should really be looking for the best part time job she can, and seeing what benefits she may be entitled to.

saintstreaky

I don't know how much it varies, but certainly in many authorities previous study makes no difference to your entitlement. In any case, if she didn't complete (and it wasn't a degree anyway!) she ought to be entitled.

Look through all the paperwork from her application. Somewhere it must say, one way or the other, how previous study affects the application. If you can't find anything, and they can't produce a piece of paper that says prior study makes her ineligible, I can't see how they can deny her.

sockospice

Just having a quick look through the general t&c at studentfinancedirect, it says that if you are behind in any way on student loan repayments, you're not entitled to anything until you get them up to date. Now, knowing how incompetent the slc are, it may be worth getting in touch with them to see whether their records are correct.

braken2000

the thing is, she did the HND, but only did it for around a year and a bit, then left. She never applied for a loan when she did it first time round, she recieved no funding or help with fees because she never applied for it, it was simply because she went to a 'publically funded university'. Thank you for all your help, she has approached her MP and is going to get him to assess the situation. We shall soon see, the LEA did not explicitly say being a previous student affects it at all. I have just being informed that she is contacting the Department of Education. If they do not help her they have left her in financial hardship, which is obviously not on.

surfcat

Given there is a joint mortgage involved it seems certain she is living as if a married couple. Hence the boyfriends earnings will be taken into account. The previously abandoned study may result in the unassessed part of the loan being refused.

braken2000

darling sister has just informed me that she will recieve 75% of the loan but no other help. I really dont know what is going on. Will post when more info arrives.

thanks once again

Bossyboots

surfcat wrote:

Given there is a joint mortgage involved it seems certain she is living as if a married couple. Hence the boyfriends earnings will be taken into account. The previously abandoned study may result in the unassessed part of the loan being refused.

I note the OP has studiously avoided responding to suggestions that the sister is living as a married woman and therefore the partner's income should be taken into account.

I am afraid any financial hardship she finds herself in is of her own making. Presumably no-one asked her to give up her job to go to Uni and she should have made sure she could fund her life before doing so.

I don't believe for one minute the boyfriend is not going to support her, I feel this is an attempt to gain money she is not actually entitled to by bending the truth about her situation.

I am sorry if that is harsh but we work hard to put our son through Uni rather than expect tax payers to pay his way and for someone to give up a job and then try and land responsibility on someone else for looking after them makes me mad.