3 Years Full Time Education - Funded or Not?

William29

Hi,

Sorry for all the threads.

Basically, due to problems at home, I have pretty much flunked my GCSE's. I've now moved out of home and in receipt of Income Support, Housing Benefit, and as of September, Educational Maintainance Allowance.

In order to go to Uni, you need 3 'A Levels'. In order to do 'A Levels' you need to have 5 GCSE's at A*-C including your 'A Level' subject preferably at B.

If I get 5 E's at GCSE, I will have to spend Year 12 re-do'ing them all again.

During Y12 I will be getting EMA, IS, and HB, as mentioned. If I manage to get 5 C's at the end of Y12, I can then apply to study for 3 'A Levels' in Y13, basically just a year late.

Now the only problem is, a full programme of 'A Levels' takes 2 full years to complete. So I will still be at school when everybody else is 19 years old and at Uni.

I've checked with EMA, who have said they will pay me for a maximum of 3 years, which means I can complete all my 'A Levels' and apply for Uni.

However, Income Support is only payable to those aged 16-19 in full time non advanced education.

When I start the 3rd year of my studies, i.e. the last year of my 'A Levels', I will be 18. I will then turn 19 in January. The course doesn't end till July.

Once I'm over 19 will they stop my Income Support half way through my last year?

Or will they still pay me Income Support until July?

If they pay me regardless as long as I'm in full time education, would it be worth staying at college till 22/23, and getting A*'s in every GCSE going, and getting A's in 7/8 different 'A Level' subjects, so I have better qualifications for jobs and prospective Uni's?

If not, wheres the cut off point?

Also, if I CAN get EMA and Income Support at 19-20, does this mean I'm still entitled to Housing Benefit?

Sorry for boring you again.

Cheers.

dmg24

Do you not have a key worker William29?

bestpud

TBH, if you are thinking about future job prospects then some work experience will look as favourable as good results.

There is no reason why you won't be able to work in between 6th form and uni so at worst, you will have to manage for the short time between your 19th birthday and your exams.

If you know it is coming then you can start putting a little away each week now and you will probably have enough to get you through without it making a big dent now iyswim?

However, once , you go to uni, you will be assessed as an independent student but will likely still need to work. Getting some experience before that will help when you are competing against all the other students for work.

I guess I'm saying you may not want to work now, but you may feel very differently in two years time?

It's possible they will pay it until you finish your exams anyway.

tom9980

Cant you appeal or do something about your results because of the situation at home at the time? i seem to remember something about this when i was ill around the time of my GCSE's 11 years ago, but its been so long i cant remember now. I was lucky despite little to no revision and somehow managing to drag myself along for school and exams (i was determined to finish) i got as expected results and in some cases better so i didnt have to do anything about it.

There are mentions of special cicumstances allowing marks to be altered by 5% or so in certain situations. http://www.ofqual.gov.uk/519.aspx this is soemthing you have to discuss with your school to see if they can help, but i fear it may be too late.

SuziQ

I don't have many answers but just wanted to say Good Luck as I really admire your determination,I'm sorry that you have had to set off alone like this.
Personally I agree with bestpud,Uni's won't look at you any more favourably just because you have more A'levels. It is such a conveyor-belt selection process these days that they are only looking for what they ask for-it would help if you knew what you want to do and could aim towards that now. Unis do like to see work experience.
One other thought,my Church is helping to sponsor someone in a similar position to you. It has to be done carefully so that it doesn't interfere with benefit entitlement obviously,but is it worth investigating any youth or church schemes in your area? It may be only practical advice and support available but worth looking into.
I'm sure lots of other more able people will be along to advise,I really hope it all works out for you.

Elle00

bestpud wrote: »

TBH, if you are thinking about future job prospects then some work experience will look as favourable as good results.

There is no reason why you won't be able to work in between 6th form and uni so at worst, you will have to manage for the short time between your 19th birthday and your exams.

If you know it is coming then you can start putting a little away each week now and you will probably have enough to get you through without it making a big dent now iyswim?

However, once , you go to uni, you will be assessed as an independent student but will likely still need to work. Getting some experience before that will help when you are competing against all the other students for work.

I guess I'm saying you may not want to work now, but you may feel very differently in two years time?

It's possible they will pay it until you finish your exams anyway.

I think Bestpud makes a good point. I had to leave school at 16 if I wanted a roof over my head. Okay, maybe there were other ways to do it, but at 16 I didn't know any of them. As far as I knew, Mother said I wasn't allowed to go to college and that was the end of it (she's not right in the head).

I did however still go onto to complete some further education through home study. I did two As Levels through the national extension college and attended evening classes to gain city and guilds computing qualifications up to level III. This was alongside working full time and learning to drive.

I don't know for sure the answer to the IS question but I do suspect you'd be hard pushed to get it for some if not all of your final year. I don't think you'd get HB either. Benefits aren't there to support further education.

So what about doing your GCSE resits this year, your As Levels next year - then getting a job to support yourself through your final year of A Levels? I know it wouldn't be easy but it would be possible. It'd be a real boost to your uni application too - especially if you found a job you could link into the kind of course you want to study at uni.

CIS

Try the Open University ( https://www.open.ac.uk ) - their course are above A level and will be taken favourably as entry requirements for other University courses.

You would get the courses at the OU for free.

Oldernotwiser

CIS wrote: »

Try the Open University ( https://www.open.ac.uk ) - their course are above A level and will be taken favourably as entry requirements for other University courses.

You would get the courses at the OU for free.

Without sounding unkind, could I suggest not doing this straight away. There's an enormous difference in standards between poor GCSE results and OU study. Someone older might be able to make that jump but not a 16 year old.

Sometimes you can look too far ahead; for now it might be best to concentrate on doing really well in your resits and then assessing the best way forward . You might feel that a vocational course could be a better route than A levels and university for you. On the other hand, if university is what you want, forget about collecting basketfuls of GCSEs and A levels as they won't enhance your applications. Get involved in worthwhile activities and voluntary work as these will help you far more. Good luck.

William29

Did my research !

Great news! In the third year of full time further education, you will receive EMA, and Income Support, which also means you will get Housing Benefit!

So I looked into what happens in the fourth year !

You can start your fourth year of full time further education, however, you won't receive any EMA (but you can look into the Adult Learning Grant and Learner Support Funds). You WILL receive Income Support, and thus, Housing Benefit.

BUT, your Income Support will immediately cut out on you're 20th birthday, and with that, so will you're Housing Benefit....well 4 weeks after anyway!

If you're birthday falls in September, unlucky. However, if you're birthday is in August, you will get a whole FOUR YEARS of further education paid for by the Government :T !

Education, education, education! :money:

Gemmzie

That's not entirely true, you can't get ALG if you have already completed an A Level

Oldernotwiser

Gemmzie wrote: »

That's not entirely true, you can't get ALG if you have already completed an A Level

You CAN get ALG if you have only one A level; you can't get it if you already have a full level 3 qualification and the definition of that is 2 A levels. This also works at level 2. If you have 4 GCSEs (grade C or higher) then that isn't a full level 2 qualification which has to be at least 5.