Student unearned income and maintenance loans

agal

I'm disappointed to discover that the interest earned on ISAs counts in means-testing for student loans. It's a real disincentive to saving IMO.

I found this information here http://www.studentfinanceni.co.uk/portal/page?_pageid=35,1258792&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL#UnearnedIncome


Unearned income does include the following:

Interest and dividends
Include all interest (after deductions) from all bank and building society accounts, dividends, investments, TESSAs, PEPs, and ISAs.

Lokolo

Won't make a difference.

When I applied I put my income as £4k and didn't make a diffence. I highly doubt interest is going to make a lot of difference.

And when going means tested you go by parents income (unless a mature student) and therefore your ISA interest won't matter either.

agal

Lokolo wrote: »

When I applied I put my income as £4k and didn't make a diffence. I highly doubt interest is going to make a lot of difference.

When I use this calculator

http://www.studentfinanceni.co.uk/portal/page?_pageid=54,1807821&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL

and only change one detail (student's income changing from £0 to £4000) the calculator tells me that;
HE Maintenance Grant falls from £3335 to £2514
Maintenance loan rises from £1820 to £2018
Fee loan remains constant at £3145 (not means-tested)

So putting in £4k reduces the student's award by £623
(£3335 + £1820 - £2514 + £2018)

Perhaps it's different in England? This is a NI calculator

Oldernotwiser

agal wrote: »

When I use this calculator

http://www.studentfinanceni.co.uk/portal/page?_pageid=54,1807821&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL

and only change one detail (student's income changing from £0 to £4000) the calculator tells me that;
HE Maintenance Grant falls from £3335 to £2514
Maintenance loan rises from £1820 to £2018
Fee loan remains constant at £3145 (not means-tested)

So putting in £4k reduces the student's award by £623
(£3335 + £1820 - £2514 + £2018)

Perhaps it's different in England? This is a NI calculator

Surely you'd need over £80,000 invested in ISAs to give you an income of £4000. Perhaps if you have that amount of capital it's only fair that you should receive less money?

agal

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

Surely you'd need over £80,000 invested in ISAs to give you an income of £4000. Perhaps if you have that amount of capital it's only fair that you should receive less money?

I was using £4k as Lokolo said he had used that figure for his income and it hadn't made any difference to his award.

On playing with the calculator I've discovered that unearned income of £260 or less doesn't affect the maintenance grant/maintenance loan - anything above £260 does.

Since this represents less than 2 years of ISAs it's not worth putting money into ISAs for a 16/17 year old planning to go to uni.

I was surprised to discover this - I had thought saving into ISAs would be a good thing for a 16/17 year old to do. Now I know better.

Lokolo

As stated. It only matters when you are applying for Mature Student. Any 16/17 year olds will be means tested against their parents income, not their own.

Helix

For England ISAs are not included, it says so in the notes for the form. I always put £0 each year as all my savings are in an ISA.

agal

It seems like students in Northern Ireland are being shafted then as it specifically states that all the student's unearned income from ISAs must be declared. :mad: