Student Finance Wales

Helldog · 16 February 2019 at 12:16PM

Hello
We live in Wales and would therefore need to apply to Student Finance Wales (SFW) if our daughter decides to go to University. If she goes, she will be starting in September 2020. I have checked the SFW website and although there is some information it does not answer all of our questions and has left us scratching our heads. I cannot email them with a list of questions as they do not have an email address on their contact page, so I will be writing to them for clarification. In the meantime if anyone can help with our questions I would be grateful. Our situation is as follows:

We run a small business where our income fluctuates from year to year.

1. From looking at the SFW website it suggests that they would assess our household income for the tax year 18/19 if my daughter starts University in September 2020 unless our income has had at least a 15% drop since that tax year. Therefore they would use the current tax year which would be 20/21 to assess our household income. If this is the case, please can someone clarify exactly what tax years they would be assessing in the 2nd year (21/22) and the 3rd year (22/23)?
2. If my daughter has any income from working in any tax year (18/19 onwards), is this counted as part of the total household income (if she is still at home at this point)? If she works part time whilst living away from home does her income affect any financial help that we apply for as she goes through each University year?
3. My son is currently away from home at University in Wales and his 3 year degree finishes in June 2020. He may continue with further education, however we do not know yet. If he returns home and commences work does his income count as part of the household income?
4. At the moment I receive child benefit for my daughter. If we applied for financial help would this be taken into account as household income for the tax years 18/19 and 19/20 (it will finish in 19/20)?

Thank you

silvercar · 16 February 2019 at 1:29PM

1. They would use the correct tax year unless you could show a drop in income, then they use the current year. That would apply for every year separately.
2. No
3. No
4. Not sure, sorry.

The good thing is that Wales student finance is more generous than in England. Your daughter would get all she is entitled to irrespective of your income, the only decision your finances make is how much is a grant and how much a loan. Given few students pay it all back, it isn’t crucial how much is a grant if the loan is never going to be fully repaid.

sheramber · 16 February 2019 at 2:03PM

Household income is your taxable income.

Child Benefit is not taxable

Mosler · 31 August 2019 at 12:48AM

Would a 30k tax free redundancy payment be counted as income, when someone applies to Student Finance Wales for a higher education grant? I've looked at the current year income form, it states the following:
"You must include the full amount of your redundancy payment, even if you don’t expect to pay tax on it."
The form also asks for total savings interest and total income from dividends but they both have tax free allowances.

On the Student Finance Wales website it states:
"If the student has asked to be income assessed we’ll use the total taxable household income to determine the level of support that the student is entitled to."

Thank you

silvercar · 31 August 2019 at 8:05AM

From what you've quoted, you need to declare it but they will only count the taxable portion (if any).

Student Finance Wales

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