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.

Campaigning is not a waste of time; would you have said that to other social change movements?

There have already been campaigns to change Universal credit, and changes have already happened because of this. A student parent should not be £100s worse off than an unemployed parent and significantly under the threshold for basic standard of living - some of these students might be 1 or 2 years into their degree and suddenly they're £100s a month worse off and dropping out. It also gives me purpose and fight.

I'm now working with a group of student parents, who are also corresponding with their MPs, which gives me support.

I will message you might university. I will not make my location public for privacy reasons.

A student parent should not be £100s worse off than an unemployed parent and significantly under the threshold for basic standard of living - some of these students might be 1 or 2 years into their degree and suddenly they're £100s a month worse off and dropping out. It also gives me purpose and fight.

Quite agree. I think campaigning to scrap UC altogether is the way to go TBH.

"It is with UC. From government website: "Child maintenance payments will be deducted from the monthly Universal Credit payment if the paying parent has no ‘earned income’"

What? When was that introduced? Sorry i didn’t know that had been changed.
This UC system is so punitive. Dickensian."

I know, it's a kick in the teeth to single parents. I don't understand why a ex-partners income that he worked in employment is counted £1 for £1 against universal credits, if they were together there would be a threshold and it would be counted as 63p deducted for every £1. Again, punishing single parents.

(Tax credits was a much better regime for student parents. For everybody, I think.)

It’s not deducted from YOUR UC benefit

It’s deducted from the paying parents UC if they have no earned income.

OP now has 5 a levels (I'm also unsure about why the foundation course is necessary as the a levels were recent.) So for everyone saying she will only get a minimum wage job I don't see why that would be the case - I think I would employ her now on a high twenties salary with her ambition and recent study experience and sounds like she would work her way up quickly.

Junior doctors don't get paid very well, it will be years and years before she sees the financial benefit of this. It's something I would love to do and have looked into graduate medical courses but realistically can't afford to give up my current job to do it. So I won't because I have (nearly) two children.

OP - you said should you have been a hairdresser, lol. The answer is probably yes!

Not my lol by the way!

Oh, and no - I don't meet the requirements for free school meals. I would under tax credits, I don't under UC as my student finance puts me above the threshold of when I can claim according to council. I will double check that, though.

It’s deducted from the paying parents UC if they have no earned income.

Oh yes; “If the paying parent has no income.”. Thank god for that.

Yes another example when US gets a bashing but unjustified.

Why are you such a fan workreturner? Under tax credits, OP (and parents like her) would be able to complete her degree on a modest but liveable income. Under UC, she’s below the breadline. How does that help with lifting people out of poverty and off benefits?

"It’s not deducted from YOUR UC benefit

It’s deducted from the paying parents UC if they have no earned income."

I was told at my UC interview that it would be added on top of my student finance and deducted. Perhaps my job centre coach was wrong? I will ask.

It is not deducted from the paying parents at all - why would they be on UC if they're working?

It is not deducted from the paying parents at all - why would they be on UC if they're working?

Sometimes CM has to be obtained against a non resident parent’s will, by deduction from wages or benefits.

Many employees on low wages get UC to top up a low income.

OP, I'm a GP. I'd really advise reconsidering medicine and going for nursing. You could train to be a specialist nurse in something, or a nurse practitioner and it would be a much shorter path to decent money and family friendly hours. If you're starting medicine now, your kids will be teens before you earn good money and see much of them.

Perhaps I am confused with child maintenance. I apologise. It's just something I hadn't thought about until my job centre interview to claim UC. Perhaps he was talking about my partner.

I'm now Googling more and there seems to be mixed viewpoints including from my job centre coach it would seem.

Government website and Gingerbread both say payments shouldn't be affected. So clearly the wrong message is going out. I was wrong, sorry, I'm trying to multitask with researching, replying on here and making breakfast.

I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again. Child maintenance payments are not included as income for UC!

@Kefte123

One of the few reasonable conservative amendments to the benefits system has been to discount maintenance payments for legacy benefits, tax credits and UC.

This is because child maintenance is intended for children- by lowering benefits when adults are in receipt of child maintenance, the conservatives argue that all you do is trap children in poverty- when this is a (cost neutral to the state) way of potentially lifting them out.
There were also concerns that maintenance payments are sadly often inconsistent - the non resident parent may pay in every week, in lumps, occasionally, or once a year- or not at all- to suggest that maintenance calculations were often leaving resident parents even worse off- as they would a) get less benefit and then b) not get the maintenance.

Your UC advisor got that advice very wrong.

This is the bit that affects you OP because you’re the “receiving parent”.

And why do they take £1 for £1 on a loan I will have to pay back? It's really unfair.

I agree. However, the government's argument would be that as 2/3 of students will never pay back their loans, it often turns out to be a grant.

The reason that student finance is deducted in full and earnings aren't is because earnings have generally already had tax and NI deducted, so you only get 68p in the £ to start with.

I think the whole way of financing medical degrees (and I include nursing & midwifery in this) is fucked. Students in these subjects struggle to get p/t work because of the need to work shifts, move to different sites etc. They are jobs that are desperately needed and the NHS is facing a staffing crisis. Nursing applications have fallen since the bursary was abolished.

I think there should be a bursary scheme for these courses and that there should be a scheme whereby the balance of the loan is written off after 10 or 15 years of NHS service.

It would hopefully improve staff retention in the NHS.

OP: have you looked into applying for help from one of the medical charities? Both the Royal Medical Benevolent fund and the BMA charity will sometimes give grants to students suffering hardship.

I'm now Googling more and there seems to be mixed viewpoints including from my job centre coach it would seem.

Never trust anything a job centre coach tells you about UC. Last week alone, I has to set straight a client who had been told there was no such thing as contribution-based ESA any more (there is, but it's called "new-style ESA" under UC) and that someone with 3 children has to claim UC (they will, eventually, but not yet). And I only work 17 hours pw, so my caseload is small!

We're coming across so many cases where claimants have lost out because work coaches have given wrong information about UC that we have decided from now on to support clients with complaints and compensation claims. Maybe if their mistakes cost money, the DWP will train them a bit better.

"The reason that student finance is deducted in full and earnings aren't is because earnings have generally already had tax and NI deducted, so you only get 68p in the £ to start with."

If I were earning my maintenance of £8,700 via employment I would pay about approx. £1 in NI. No income tax. It certainly wouldn't be 33% of it deducted.

Carer's Allowance is also deducted £1 for £1 too. I don't have it because I'm a full-time student. Makes Carer's Allowance pointless for those on UC.

No carers allowance isn't pointless for those on UC and you can still claim it if you are a student. It is a way of meeting the requirements for the Carers Element of UC which is worth about £151pcm. You can qualify without claiming Carer's Allowance but it is way way of proving entitlement.

NB You can qualify for CE even if you have earnings that take you over the limit for CA.

Yes please ignore the job Centre coach. Go and get some proper advice from a benefits adviser. You have had some on here but don't appear to be listening.

I'm a proud person and I tend not to ask for monetary help so this is very hard for me to change my mindset and ask for financial assistance

So the years of tax credits, UC, child benefit and the rest aren't financial assistance

"Do you know, I would be financially £100s better off if I took a vocational course that didn't have a maintenance loan. Maybe I should become a hairdresser? Lol."

Wow, showing your true colours OP. What's wrong with being a hairdresser, earning a wage and paying to raise your own kids? No, that would be terrible, let's moan at the amount of these peoples hard earned tax is given to you for free to pay to raise your children whilst mocking their profession.