Student and Universal Credit Woes

[Kefte123]

I'm currently a full-time university student and a single mum with two children. I ended up splitting up with my partner of over a decade, partly because he didn't want to move closer to university with us.

So I found my own house to rent and I sorted my student finance and applied for universal credit. I thought I'd be okay, because I had someone do an assessment of my entitlements from a charity prior to moving in and I've had single friends who have done the same and I spoke to them about finances (they were on tax credits). I really felt I'd be okay.

Today after several weeks of waiting I got my Universal credits award of £88. If my eldest child wasn't disabled it would have been £0.

Basically, I'm now living on student finance, child benefit and £88....and my son's DLA. I don't get much more than a single mother out of work or student without dependents, except I have books, transport (fuel, parking, insurance, upkeep), school dinners and 15% childcare costs (approx £500 per month , that's if my car doesn't need major repairs). So I'm worse off than them. I've searched for help with bursaries and financial aid, and I don't know where to turn.

It doesn't help that student finance isn't paid in a regular sum. It is paid in smaller increments at the start of the two semesters (get just over half in that period), then a larger sum towards the end of the second semester. Which means my actual time at university for 9 months is only about £700 month. How is a mother with 2 children supposed to live off that?

So now I feel terrible: I've broken my relationship down, I've moved my children into a different home and new schools and I'm now just poor and verging on quitting everything. I don't think I have enough money to survive over the course of the Christmas period, I have just around £600 - that's for rent/car payments/fuel/food/electricity. On top of that my house was rented with no carpets or flooring. I have barely any furniture. This is poverty.

I have a very intensive degree on a foundation programme for medicine, which means there is no time to work around the degree as a single parent and I could only work Sundays (and I would have to rely on my partner for childcare). My ex-partner does give some support, but it's not enough to fill that gap as he doesn't earn much more than minimum wage himself and has a mortgage to pay.

I'm desperately trying all avenues for help, checking if the universal credits is correct. The helpline was unsympathetic and saying I should just budget and how I get £10,000 a year in student finance and anyone can survive fine on just that. I keep breaking down my basic outgoings and how they don't cover my income, they don't care. I'm losing the will to live and I have two summative essays of 2000 words to hand in by Thursday and I can't concentrate. I'm so close to failure.

The bursaries are in addition to any hardship funds.

@Ploverlover Allied Heath students now have to pay for their university tuition costs.

OP is on track to earn £70k plus a year. She is right to try to play the long game.

Hahaha! £70 a year?! When? In 15 years time? After the mental breakdown of all the years in poverty?

I know allied healthcare professionals have to get loans now. But it's shorter training, shorter hours work, and shorter training. i

It's unreasonable to let your kids live in poverty on a dream of being fully qualified when they're nearly adults.

OP, are you sure all your UC elements are there? Can you log in and double check?

Student maintenance loan is taken into account as income for UC and will therefore reduce it. They take the loan and divide it between the number of months it's meant to cover ( usually ten). They disregard £110 per month. Are you sure all your UC elements are correct in the first place ?

@CosmicCanary
I’m not ashamed. OP didn’t mention violence to begin with, so I thought she may have been better off staying with him. Now we know differently.

OP- have you really thought this out?

I commend you leaving your ex if the relationship wasn’t healthy and have respect for your drive to build a new career but my DH is a Doctor (not even a junior one anymore) and his hours are brutal! 13 hour shifts, nights, on calls and can never guarentee when he will leave sometimes it’s an hour early, others it’s 3 hours late!

He couldn’t juggle childcare around it- that’s why so many of our doctor friends are coupled up with partners who work more regular/ flexible hours!

It seems to me that you’ve ‘followed your dreams’ potentially in detriment to yourself and your children. In pursuit of an end goal that is almost as unmanageable as your current situation.

Leaving your ex doesn’t automatically mean you need to be studying medicine. Maybe you need to disassociate those two things. Leaving Ex - good idea
Taking on your current situation - bad idea
Everyone has this ‘be all you can be’ attitude now but actually you do have responsibilities and do need to provide a home for your kids that has flooring 🤔 so actually maybe scale down your aspirations and put your kids first xxx

Robot
She did not need to mention any DV.
People can leave relationships for many reasons and thats ok. DV should not be the bench mark of which leaving is deemed the only ok reason.

COSMIC
Even if he was the nicest guy alive if he wasn't supporting OPs choice to better herself and study/her career than she has every right to persue that alone without judgement from people like you.

Or do you believe men should work and women should just cook dinner and do as their husband's say

Sorry that was to ROBOTIC Not cosmic

Sorry that was toROBOTICNot cosmic

Phew

Sorry

Thanks everyone, I'm making a list of things to try and what I can do so I can afford to pay my bills over Christmas and perhaps get through the next semester unscathed. Feeling slightly better I have an action plan.

"You will be entitled to student account - use overdraft until student loan comes in.

Your loans going to be about £8400 for the year, plus £1788 child benefit, plus dla perhaps around £3000. It comes in around 13k for the year I think."

That's about right. My problem is with student finance, half of it won't get released until mid-May at the end of my degree. So I will get approx £2,800 payment at start of January, then £88 per month which is to last me almost 5 months and my son's DLA which is meant to enhance his living (not help me out of poverty). I will get £1,100 for next 5 months. Then I calculate cost of basic essentials so I can go to university and my children can eat and it comes over, it doesn't take into account car repair, birthday/Christmas, clothes, uniform, shoes, school trips, broken mobile, clubs/activities, broken appliances, fuel to visit family etc... all those extras in life where just £50 or more would mean I can't get into university because I can't afford the fuel.

I will be okay in the Summer (I have a permanent offer of Summer employment). I'm struggling to see how I will get through next 6 months to get to university and give my children a basic standard of living.

Just realised I also have my both my son's savings, which I've been putting £20 a month into since they were a baby. I can't touch my youngest's savings due to the type, but I am able to cash in my eldest's saving. I'd feel really guilty though. It is an option.

I just wrote a really long post with lots of info and it bloody didn't save! FFS. I'll summarise...

Essentially your UC looks wrong. Get it checked. See if you can have Carer's element added for caring for your son. Don't rely on DWP checking it. Get it checked by an independent benefits adviser. By my calculation you should be on about £750pcm not including your rent (which should be added on top) plus you may be able to get the carers element as mentioned above.

Citizens Advice can help you with the above. Don't fuck around with webchat. Either call them and request a full benefit call at a F2F Advice appt or drop in and request the same. Be insistent but polite (remember it's all volunteers!)

See if you qualify for warm home discount (£140) via your energy supplier and for water schemes via your water provider.

Along with food bank vouchers m you may be able to get utility top ups at Citizens Advice. They may also be able to advise you on low cost furniture schemes in your areas. The schemes may also do free stuff too like bedding packs if needed.

Def look into hardship grants as others have mentioned.

Have you checked to see whether you are eligible for free school meals? If not packed lunches are cheaper.

Get a student account which should come with an int free overdraft (not ideal I know but not a lot of students seem to cope without one).

If you could possibly do any work you can earn up to £198pcm without it affecting your UC at all. You can then also get up to 85% towards your childcare costs.

Hope some of that helps

"I commend you leaving your ex if the relationship wasn’t healthy and have respect for your drive to build a new career but my DH is a Doctor (not even a junior one anymore) and his hours are brutal! 13 hour shifts, nights, on calls and can never guarentee when he will leave sometimes it’s an hour early, others it’s 3 hours late!

He couldn’t juggle childcare around it- that’s why so many of our doctor friends are coupled up with partners who work more regular/ flexible hours!

It seems to me that you’ve ‘followed your dreams’ potentially in detriment to yourself and your children. In pursuit of an end goal that is almost as unmanageable as your current situation.

Leaving your ex doesn’t automatically mean you need to be studying medicine. Maybe you need to disassociate those two things. Leaving Ex - good idea
Taking on your current situation - bad idea
Everyone has this ‘be all you can be’ attitude now but actually you do have responsibilities and do need to provide a home for your kids that has flooring 🤔 so actually maybe scale down your aspirations and put your kids first xxx"

Thanks for your worries. I am aware of this; I have friends who are doctors. I'd also add that I used to work nights and most weekends full-time as a care worker whilst I studied for my 4 A-levels. I have worked unholy hours before and I have arrangements in place to cope with these working hours, even now as a single parent.

Can I also add my children are not babies, they're 11 and 12. It will take me 5-years to do my degree. Although I am aware that they might be some clinical experience within that degree that might require nights, I am lucky that my tutors and university are flexible to my circumstances.

MiniMum97, that's very helpful. Especially the threshold of working, because I have considered a part-time job,. I will look at getting weekend work.

I do feel like the UC has been calculated incorrectly, but there simply isn't any guidance for me to follow online to check it and after 2 phone calls they're very adamant it's correct - I have seen several stories of it being incorrectly calculated for students though. I will try to make an appointment for next week and CAB and have them check it over. It already had carer and disabled element too.

This is why I gave up my last degree, (I have one already), and several others on my course. We were told to expect x amount, and it was no where near. No one ever gives the same advice when it comes to students and benefits. Only took a failed MOT and £600 repairs, that meant I couldnt survive on thin air. As I said others were in the same boat too. Hope it works out better for you OP.

I also think there are common misconceptions with medicine = working in hospital/clinical setting. Medicine opens doors to many several career pathways, like research. I have contemplated for hours about which degree.

Is this reverse psychology? Tell me I shouldn't do this degree whilst I contemplate quitting - so I'll come at you fighting why I really want to keep going. Wouldn't care if it was £25,000 or £100,000 a year. I have worked extremely hard to get this far, I'm having a very bad day and I'm in shock, that why I am talking about throwing in the towel. Although if I realistically if I have to choose between the degree and my children eating...there is no contest.

I think going back to study medicine at university is a luxury that most parents would struggle to finance, and one that seems absolute lunacy to be considering in your position with two children to support. It all seems very selfish.

Have no advice but well done on leaving your ex. And I hope everything you're working so hard for works out for you. Hopefully your UC is wrong x

If you log on to your UC account on the "Home" tab there should be a "Payments" option, click that and you'll see your award on a big blue banner, in the bottom left (I think!) there is a link saying "full breakdown" or similar - click that.

So, based on what you've said you should get Standard Allowance (£251.77 for under 25, £317.82 for 25+), Child Element (£277.08 for 1st Child, £231.67 for 2nd Child), Housing Element (whatever your weekly LHA rate is for the property size x 52 / 12), Disabled Child Element (£126.11 - I'm guessing based on his DLA rate this is the right rate, if not it's £383.86), Carers Element (£156.45)... so all those elements totted up, less your Student Income (they take max award of Student Finance, work out how many Assessment Periods it's due to cover - normally 10 - divide by that, take off £110 disregard and what is left is deducted £1 for £1 off the above overall total). And you obviously may have deductions for any advance payments etc you've taken.

Does anything seem to be missing?

As well as checking your benefits entitlement, you should look more at what is available from your university.

At my university, you would be eligible for an additional bursary of £3,000. You could also apply for the Access to Learning Fund (up to £2,500), the unexpected hardship fund (up to £6,000 in a combination of grants and loans if your circumstances changed after you started your course) and a one off emergency loan of £250.

The Access to Learning Fund should be available at all universities, but the other types of financial support will be different at different universities. You should be able to find all the information on your university's website.

I have little in the way of practical advice. I did, however, want to say. Thank you for training to be a doctor in spite of the personal difficulty it is causing you. We need more good doctors and without a doubt ( and can say this in a professional capacity) those doctors who are older and have life experience generally bring skills to the table that young graduates don’t. When a patient breaks down because of the other circumstances they are dealing with, you will ‘get it’ and that will make a huge difference to them. Keep plugging at it OP, without a doubt speak to Uni and look at bursaries. Good luck OP

"I think going back to study medicine at university is a luxury that most parents would struggle to finance, and one that seems absolute lunacy to be considering in your position with two children to support. It all seems very selfish."

Education should never be a luxury, every individual should be able to optimize him or herself and have the option pf social mobility at any age or any circumstance.

To me lunacy is spending the rest of my life in an unskilled minimum wage job of a zero hour contract that offers little stability or reasonable hours putting me into poverty too. It also would make me mentally unwell, which is also unfair on my children, and I would die one day knowing I never lived the life I wanted and always struggled. I know because I have worked a zero hour contract for the last several years prior to university, some weeks I would have 60 hours and others I can have 0. This is not the first time I have struggled with uncertainty or poverty, I want to leave that behind.

Going to university provides my children inspiration, I become more educated (it's amazing how much my children have learnt through me) and I'm training to get a stable job with better pay so I don't have to rely on the benefits system for the rest of my life to top up my wages.

Firstly, I just wanted to say I think you're doing the right thing. You're making sure you'll be financially self sufficient and you're showing a fantastic example to your children. Also you're a person too and that didn't stop just because you became a parent.

On to practical advice:
Your university should be able to help you get through to May. They have a fund specifically intended to help students in financial difficulty.

CAB will be able to do a proper check of your UC if you can get in to see them face to face with all your paperwork. Some offices have an appointment system and some you can just drop in. You will most likely see a volunteer, but they are ridiculously thoroughly trained and if you're in a UC area this sort of thing is their bread and butter now. Their knowledge is sometimes better than the actual UC employees on the phone and they want you to get everything you're entitled to.

Finally if you have the time and energy please do write to your MP. They should know about the practical effects of their shit policy, and actually the truest bluest Tory ought to be supportive of a single mother trying to improve her financial situation through education and hard work.