University Maintenance Grant confusion...

Kristoph

Kristoph

Kristoph

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I'm slightly confused as to whether or not I'm eligible to receive a maintenance grant this September, should I return to university.

I've used the Direct Gov website and it's kind of contradicting itself.

The Student Finance Calculator on the website asks you for your household income, where it requests you to

estimate the total taxable unearned income, before deductions, that you expect to receive in the academic year 1/9/2010 to 31/8/2011
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Which is £0. As my income is and has been earned by myself for the past few years, even though I've lived with parents and paid rent.

It then tells me I'm entitled to the full maintenance grant & loan.


However, another section of the Direct Gov website states that students will only receive a maintenance grant if..

The maximum grant available for 2010/11 or 2009/10 £2,906 for the academic year. This is available to full-time higher education students with a household income of £25,000 or under.
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However my household income falls into

More than £50,020 - No grant
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So I'm left feeling confused. :confused: :(

Any ideas?
 
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StewartMG said:
No grant - you're rich enough! :)
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This is where it's total rubbish.

I don't earn this, they have their own expenses that they need to cope with.

Why does their income immediately mean that I'm expected to scrounge off them?

I don't, I have to work.

And you're both missing my first point, where it states the household income is not what is earned, it's what you receive that is unearned by yourself. Which in my case is £0.
 
It says your entitled to the full loan based on the info you've given them so far, then when they receive the household income information it shows that you aren't eligible for a grant.
 
Kristoph said:
This is where it's total rubbish.

I don't earn this, they have their own expenses that they need to cope with.

Why does their income immediately mean that I'm expected to scrounge off them?

I don't, I have to work.

And you're both missing my first point, where it states the household income is not what is earned, it's what you receive that is unearned by yourself. Which in my case is £0.
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That's the criteria for grants, its for poorer families. Otherwise every students can use your argument to get a grant. Since it is their parent's money. Hence the criteria is for an household income, not student income.
 
Kristoph said:
This is where it's total rubbish.

I don't earn this, they have their own expenses that they need to cope with.

Why does their income immediately mean that I'm expected to scrounge off them?

I don't, I have to work.

And you're both missing my first point, where it states the household income is not what is earned, it's what you receive that is unearned by yourself. Which in my case is £0.
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I argued this with my uni mates until I was blue in the face. I feel the same way, the system is an appalling mess of bureaucratic procedures and protocols based on arbitrary factors and circumstances. I'm not just referring to the grants system, more the loans company as a whole.

My parents earned marginally over one of the brackets which significantly reduced the grant I received. I started uni a couple of years later than everyone else, I was practically self-sufficient before going to uni, financing myself bar a subsidised rent. My parent's financial situation had no impact on mine while I was at uni. This was always going to be the case, so means testing gave a completely false indication of my financial situation at uni.

I didn't return to uni for the second year, financial circumstances was one of those reasons. It's a shame as I scored rather highly in my end of year exams.

The final nail in the coffin for me was when one of my course-mates received a free Macbook Pro because he was apparently dyslexic. Even in normal circumstances this is a bit iffy, what makes it worse is that my mate had no idea he was dyslexic and took the eligibility test on a chance to see if he would turn out positive. He was far from struggling through the course up to this point and had no reason at all to suspect that he may have some kind of disability. I'm sure the £1000 laptop helped him through the course though...
 
welcome to education moneys problems. its only going to get worse with what big dave and his mate nick announced today too :/ ema has the same issues

your one and only way out of this one is if your parents get all there bank statements from the last millennium and prove that they cant afford to give you a penny . its 98% impossible though...

if your over 25 they dont take parents into account and if you can prove youve supported yourself for 3 years they dont take parents into account(you cant manae this one since youve been at home though)
 
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Raymond Lin said:
That's the criteria for grants, its for poorer families. Otherwise every students can use your argument to get a grant. Since it is their parent's money. Hence the criteria is for an household income, not student income.
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where the whole thing fails though

for example a student whos household is 1k below the threshold gets a nice grant . this student is an only child living at home straight out of college

then another student and there 4 brothers/sisters are in a household 1k above the threshold but get nothing at all because apparently single mum should pay for them all to eat/sleep/live/clothes even though they are all 22 , 23 , 24
 
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The assumption is made that if your parents are earning over 50k, which is quite a lot, then they will give you money for living expenses the same way they subbed you when you were at school. I don't see the problem personally? :confused:
 
I thought maintenance grants were supposed to be on a sliding scale after £25k?

How Much Will I Receive?
That all depends on your total income, or, usually, that of your household - so your mum and dad’s total income. If that amount is less than £25,000, you will receive the maximum amount of £2906, but that amount will go down as your total household income goes up.
The cap, above which you do not receive any maintenance grant, is £50,020 - so if your household income (total salaries and any other earnings) is more than that, then you can’t apply for this grant.
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http://www.fundingeducation.co.uk/applying-for-maintenance-grants.html

If you're from a large family where quite a lot of you are going to uni at the same time and not earning then perhaps there's a way to make an appeal as a special case. Otherwise I don't know.
 
i wouldnt even waste time with an appeal ! they just lose it repeatedly. it took me 10 months to prove that i had supported myself for 3 years:p
 
Moredhel said:
Move out, then your household income becomes £0?
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Even if you live on your own and have been disowned by your parents they still count your parents income as your household income, you have to be living alone for 3 years before they disregard your parents income.

StewartMG said:
The assumption is made that if your parents are earning over 50k, which is quite a lot, then they will give you money for living expenses the same way they subbed you when you were at school. I don't see the problem personally? :confused:
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The problem is many students live on their own away from their parents or don't receive support from them.

The only fair way to do student finance is to treat all students as independent adults, taking into account their bills and personal income, and then giving support based on that, so people who are living in £100 p/w halls don't starve to death on the paltry 3.5k maintenance loan. Fairer still would be to fund students education directly by abolishing tuition fees.
 
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Me and my brother are both at uni, and my parents don't earn a significant amount over the £50k bracket.

They can't be expected to provide the sort of money compared to that of a grant (2 x £2900).. it's crazy. I worked through my BSc, 22hrs a week for the majority of it. Didn't get a particularly good grade as most of my weekends and a couple evenings were spent working to fund myself through uni.
 
Kristoph said:
This is where it's total rubbish.

I don't earn this, they have their own expenses that they need to cope with.

Why does their income immediately mean that I'm expected to scrounge off them?

I don't, I have to work.

And you're both missing my first point, where it states the household income is not what is earned, it's what you receive that is unearned by yourself. Which in my case is £0.
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It's a load of balls, my bloods boiled so many times thinking about it that i've just become de sensitised to it.
Fact of the matter is you're better off being from a poor familiy at uni.

The slc seem to work on the assumption that parents will all live in cheap rented accomodation and walk everywhere then stockpile their money to give to their children.
I wouldn't even want money off my parents, I'm 18, a man, and must act accordingly. This includes supporting myself.

I get tuition and accomodation paid for fair enough but it seems to take the mick how some of the people I know don't have to work at uni, some of them can afford to buy laptops and all sorts out of their loan.
And after that I'm still roped into this stereotype than all students are lazy, don't work, get loads of money from the government and just go out drinking every night.

I've just been going down on the weekends looking to line a job up and see my freinds where I'm going.
Simple fact of the matter is i'll have enough saved to survive for 3-4 months jobless before I'm literally without a penny.
 
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Moses99p said:
That's not quite true. Okay, so you can't get a grant (£2900), but you can get a loan of £4950*.



So a person sans le grant = £4950.

A person avec le grant = £2900 + £3500 = £6400

So the difference is now £1450... and, IMO, a household earning over the threshold we're discussing can afford to make up that difference.
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The loan is only that high if your living near London, I can only get £3.5k.
 
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The real problem is that, like the tv licensing muppets, they just assume that you are being helped by your parents in the way they assume you have a tv.

This is very often simply not the case.

My GF for example was literally thrown out on the street at the age of 17 and didnt speak to her parents for nearly ten years. They now have a relationship but its been a long process.

This happened a long time ago when things were different so she was able to goto uni and get an eduaction. If it happened now i cant see her being able to.

Why is there no allowance made for those under 25 who have no support from parents? it seems like its just assumed you get help.
 
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