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.

OP, I do wish you good luck pursuing your dreams. For all those who say that you are being desilussioned, they shouldn't worry. Any course you go on will be assessing your ability to carry it through. Medicine courses differ a lot from one place to another. At the school my DD attend, a good number of them also work, including my DD. It won't pay for her regular bills, but it does help quite a bit.

I get the feeling that you are just not getting all you can so at the moment, your anger against the system is misplaced. Also, however much I command you for your goals, I do agree with posters that it is because of your choices you are where you are and your decision to have children before considering your career. You want it all which is great but you have to accept that this option comes with greater difficulties including finances. In some countries you would get no help at all or very little and would need to rely solely on loans.

I do agree that considering what you already have to cope with taking time to campaign against the benefit system which without, your dreams would not even be a poosibility is indeed a big waste of your and your children time.

Blimey you've been given a hard time on here OP! I'm shocked and horrified that there are posters suggesting you give up your educational goals and career plans.

Come on people, this is why we have a gender pay gap. Women with children are not being supported to achieve their educational potential. We complain about a glass ceiling for women and that women are being kept down by the patriarchy and yet here we have a bunch of women berating the OP and telling her to give up and take a (much) lower paid long term career.

Shame on all of you.

So many people don't think about the long game and make life decisions based on what's best right now forgetting that they are limiting their future.

Keep going OP, I admire your ambition and the life lesson you are giving your DC. I bet they will be so proud of you when you qualify.

OP I just want to say good for you! You are an inspiration and it I think it is fantastic that you are studying medicine.

It's ridiculous that people have reported this thread. Nothing about your thread came across as you trying to beg for money.

Good luck with everything

MrsChollySawcutt... What bollocks. Nothing to do with the patriarchy or keeping women down. Think you'll find the responses would be the same or worse if the OP was saying her husband had decided to quit his job to go and chase his dream and push the family into poverty.
My response would be the same to him, you choose to have a family, support them!

Oh hush up Lichtie. You’re coming across like a disinterred workhouse superintendent.

Following on from @MiniMum97, Carers Allowance is still worth claiming as it comes with Class 1 NI contributions so safeguards your future pension / some other benefit entitlements (otherwise UC is just Class 3).

Op plenty of working people claim
UC. Maintence would be refused for their UC not yours if no earned income as was the case for JSA.
Child maintence is definitely not deducted from yours. Spousal maintence is irrelevant to you.

8day UC nat credits count for your pension. Full time students can’t claim carers but they can have an underlying entitlement for credits and carers component of UC.

I am at university and a single parent. I have changed onto UC recently and am happy with my payments!

Are you sure they are calculating the sums correctly? I asked that as some students had issues as UC are meant to not count some of the income from SF.

I made it clear to UC not to count my childcare grant payments etc as income.

So yes I am confused by your post as it does not sound right.

Jesus. This thread has such a stench of ‘single mother know your place’ coming off it. I hope the pearl clutchers lamenting these children being raised in poverty because their mother dared to educate herself are equally vociferous about the life a woman might look forward to when she and her partner both work min wage jobs at the mercy of whatever state whim is in fashion.

I didn’t think it was possible to claim benefits through choice. If you can work but aren’t, you have to actively job search unless you’re a single parent with a very young child.

And that whole line of children in poverty... They have a roof over their heads, food in their belly. This Xmas might be a bit tight but then hopefully will be treated by the rest of the family. OP will work over the summer so will be able to save and be much more prepared for next year year.

They might not à lot but they would t have much more if OP was just looking for work on UC. Would it be OK though to make do on benefits but not if you are studying?

@noseoftralee

It doesn’t at all. Give me one example!

You’re not a single parent.
I am i o don’t get slightest whiff of this thread being “single mums know your place”. Ridiculous

""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."

I apologise; it wasn't intended to mock, I do believe comments over the internet can be misinterpreted.

Many single mother trainee hairdressers are also getting tax-payments of over £1000s in UC to study. I'm only getting £88 per month, the rest is a loan of £700 per month I will likely pay back of tax payers money too.

I think trainee hairdressers are AMAZING, especially if they're a mum as well. Everyone should be able to gain a skill and education and follow their dreams - engineer, lawyer, childcare provider, hairdresser, plumber, nurse.... we should all be supported to go into education to increase our wages, to improve our mental health, to improve society and maximising this one life we have been given. I'm amazed by every single person that is shooting for their star, whatever their star might be and whatever their circumstances.

It was to point out the disparity between full-time education courses, if I were to go back and study more A-levels or another college access course I would have been better off this year than doing a foundation (I now wish I had ). I'd be £100s better off now if I attended a nearby college nearby and studied there full-time. Which doesn't make sense to me.

I wish I'd known how universal credits was calculated for student finance; does anyone have a good link of EXACTLY how it's calculated? Then I could check. Some people keep talking about a special element, but from what I gather that only applies to pre-2016 student finance applications only, as now maintenance loans aren't broken down.

I gave you a link to the guide that UC use to calculate payments for students earlier in this thread.

bumble could you send me the link? X

It’s on this thread @donajimena. Here it is again:

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/754952/admh6.pdf

Thanks for that bumble unfortunately it makes as much sense to me as this research paper I've got sat in front of me . I get 7900 loan and around 4.5k in a grant. It is impossible to find what, if anything I might be entitled to.
If it helps anyone who might be judgey I'll be going straight into employment immediately upon graduation and more than likely be paying higher rate tax within two years

I’m a single mum, just returned to Uni as a mature student and submitted UC claim.

I get approx 11700 in maintenance loans and grants, of that less than 7000 is classed as income for UC purposes.

My payments are approx 500 per month, no childcare claimed though.

My student services were amazing in helping with a separate issue and advised me to make sure some income was disregarded.

Pls speak to your Uni, and good luck

Thanks for sharing that Bacon. It helps to know I might have something. Does anyone know if the loan is disregarded or the grant?

It was definitely the parental learning grant element, and I presume another grant.

I’ll see if I can dig out my uni leaflet

That's interesting because the cohort below us have less loan and more grant.. I hope there is an equal playing field.