Student Loan 2015 Discussion

B.C.H · 4 January 2012 at 6:46PM

probably worth pointing out that to qualify for these loans and grants available (depending on your income) actually do not go off your income until you have been living away from home for over 3 years
...i was fooled into thinking that i could get the maximum grant plus student loan due to my low income, however i will have only lived alone for 2 yrs 10 months by next September thus meaning i am judged as a 'dependent' student. (although i get zero financial support from my parents) I now cannot afford to go to uni- very frustrating!

Oldernotwiser · 4 January 2012 at 7:49PM

B.C.H wrote: »

probably worth pointing out that to qualify for these loans and grants available (depending on your income) actually do not go off your income until you have been living away from home for over 3 years
...i was fooled into thinking that i could get the maximum grant plus student loan due to my low income, however i will have only lived alone for 2 yrs 10 months by next September thus meaning i am judged as a 'dependent' student. (although i get zero financial support from my parents) I now cannot afford to go to uni- very frustrating!

You don't have to have lived away from your parents' home to be considered an independent student but you do need to have supported yourself financially for three years.

*depressed* · 4 January 2012 at 8:00PM

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

You don't have to have lived away from your parents' home to be considered an independent student but you do need to have supported yourself financially for three years.

sorry wrong post!

joisonline · 10 January 2012 at 1:49PM

My daughter feels penilised as her parents are still together, living under the same roof and I feel she is being penilised because the family income is £65k.

My husband and I have a large mortgage and do not live a lavage lifestyle, we are careful and prudent with our money and have very little spare income to help out our daughter without getting ourselves into trouble. Any suggestions on how she can make up the shortfall as what she is entitled to won't even cover the full accommodation fees. Divorcing and living in separate houses is rather drastic but would mean I could use my income, £10,000, as the total household income.

Oldernotwiser · 10 January 2012 at 3:33PM

joisonline wrote: »

My daughter feels penilised as her parents are still together, living under the same roof and I feel she is being penilised because the family income is £65k.

My husband and I have a large mortgage and do not live a lavage lifestyle, we are careful and prudent with our money and have very little spare income to help out our daughter without getting ourselves into trouble. Any suggestions on how she can make up the shortfall as what she is entitled to won't even cover the full accommodation fees. Divorcing and living in separate houses is rather drastic but would mean I could use my income, £10,000, as the total household income.

If wealthy parents can't (or won't) help their student offspring financially they'll either need to work part time whilst at university, work and save for a year or work for three years and become independent.

mumps · 12 January 2012 at 8:59AM

joisonline wrote: »

My daughter feels penilised as her parents are still together, living under the same roof and I feel she is being penilised because the family income is £65k.

My husband and I have a large mortgage and do not live a lavage lifestyle, we are careful and prudent with our money and have very little spare income to help out our daughter without getting ourselves into trouble. Any suggestions on how she can make up the shortfall as what she is entitled to won't even cover the full accommodation fees. Divorcing and living in separate houses is rather drastic but would mean I could use my income, £10,000, as the total household income.

Divorcing and living in separate houses is rather drastic and I don't think it will be cheap either. Perhaps you could look at Debt Free Wannabe board and get some help with budgeting.

Suggestions about what your daughter can do:
Choose the cheapest accommodation
Choose universities with cheap accommodation i.e. not London
Work now and save
Work at university
Learn to budget
Work for 3 years, support herself and get more funding.

Personally I think the way funding is worked out for students with divorced parents is wrong, I know the son of a millionaire whose mother hasn't worked since she got married and now lives on what she got when they divorced. He gets full funding as calculated on mothers income, he then gets lots of money from dad. Divorce ends a marriage but you are both still parents.

Sorry if I don't sound sympathetic but I think you are actually in a good position and I am sure you can work together to make university possible.

mumps · 12 January 2012 at 9:05AM

K36 wrote: »

Hello Everyone, I am a mature student living with my partner and two sons in a council rented flat accommodation infested with mice. I will be finishing my course in February, my last student loan £4968 and grant of £2350 was paid in October and 2 installments of grants of £2350 will be paid in January and April respectively. I am not working and my partner too is not working because she was pregnant and had the baby in November. We went to the council in September and they told us that based on the student loan and grant i will be receiving in October, January and April we will have to pay all the rent without any support till April, before we will be access again. Because they see the student loan as income from September to March. The rent is £850 a month, we are finding it very difficult to pay this HUGE monthly rent, because if it was a council owned accommodation we wont paying that much. Our out goings have increased with the arrival of our new baby, moreover some of the money went into books, travelling and other expenses for my course.

Now, is this fair for the council to treat as this way? Was it right for the council to use the student loan as income from September till March, is student loan not yearly loans, even if I am finishing uni in Feb? Is the student loan meant to look after myself, partner and two sons. Please give me honest answers,no need to patronise me , we are desperately in need. Thanks

A bit confusing, is it council owned flat or not?

2sides2everystory · 15 January 2012 at 11:23AM

Why are student tuition fees being used as a political tennis ball?

Why is the current government casualising the main workforce (Non EU nationals working 10 hours a day 7 days a week on Olympics site, and Stratford Westfield staffed with youngsters on less than adult NMW and no contracts worth the paper?).

Why are JobCentre Plus contractors being encouraged to dumbdown (to shelf-stacking at Poundland) anyone that enters their doors and fails to do an immediate about turn?

Why does ONW think that a household with children earning £65,000 a year is wealthy? (Personally I think it is because ONW has been dumbed down)

Why are the government offering encouragement to divorced parents of students (I am one) which mean that the artificial burden of higher education foist upon all parents with one hand is much eased for divorced parents like "buy one course and lowest parent gets one a grant free?"

Maybe the government is trying to encourage divorced parents to get back together again and collude over such things as who gets Child Benefit and the address used for the student grant application?

Why is government encouraging bullying of teachers in schools?

This is not government, it is not leadership, it is crass media manipulation with no valid measurement of success. Our party leaders are schoolboys all and rightly nervous - they are way out of their depth.

We are effectively rudderless and easy meat for those who would plunder us anew.

Why has nothing happened about the mickey taking of the OFT and CAA about card fees by the airlines?

Why are petrol prices at the pump sitting steadily at the highest they have ever been when crude oil prices are not?

Why has there been no BBC media report of what has been happening around Paternoster Square and St Paul's since before Christmas and New Year? A Guardian view of the current position is here and I particular like MarcusMoore's realvillains reminder which I had not read before and which he links below the Guardian piece in his comment.

Why are bank shares on some re-invigorated rise over the same period?

Are they not the truest measure of whether a correct balance is being achieved?

Derivative · 15 January 2012 at 2:01PM

2sides2everystory wrote: »

Why does ONW think that a household with children earning £65,000 a year is wealthy? (Personally I think it is because ONW has been dumbed down)

That is over four times my parents household income.
Would I consider it 'wealthy'? Probably not.

But I live off around £6-7k per year while at University. I'm sure they can figure something out.

The_One_Who · 15 January 2012 at 2:23PM

2sides2everystory wrote: »

Why does ONW think that a household with children earning £65,000 a year is wealthy? (Personally I think it is because ONW has been dumbed down)

First of all, there is no need for personal attacks. Why do you need to continually bump this thread, often with completely irrelevant points?

Personally, I consider a household with an income of £65,000 as wealthy. It has two adults earning more than the UK average salary. Obviously how wealthy, or rather how far that money goes, will depend on where in the country you are, but from my own perspective you can buy a house for that here.

Student Loan 2015 Discussion

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