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.