To think you have to declare both parents' income for Uni?

[AngryLlama]

DSD is due to start uni in September. Her mum reckons she will get the full loan as she intends to only declare her income not DH's. Surely this isn't right?

Yes it is. Its on the residents parents salary. Don't you want her to have the full loan?

Does it matter?
Maybe she wants her dd to get the maximum amount of money she can

You disclose household income. If she's down as living at her mums then that will suffice.

Is it not done on family income rather than extended family income?

Yes as far as I know you only have to declare the resident parent's income

YABU. You disclose the income from the resident household only.

You have to declare all adults (I think there is an exception for siblings of the student) living at the students main address.

So if mum has a partner then that income should be declared but your DSD'S dad's income would not be included. (Presuming DSD mainly lives with mum reverse mum/dad if the other way around)

It just seems wrong. DH is a high earner who pays his ex over £2k per month in spousal maintenance plus £500 per month for child maintenance. But none of that is declared as income. I assumed we would support DSD through uni and would rather than her take the maintenance loan.

It's based on the income of the home where the student lives. So if DSDs Mum remarried his income will be taken into account, but not her dads.

This is one of those strange anomalies - if her mum has a live in partner, that person's income also counts. I think if an adult sibling is living at home, theirs counts too. But the non-resident parent doesn't count.
It can work out a bit shit for people if the parent they live with moves in a partner with a decent job, who isn't a fully fledged bill - footing step parent.

It's the household income of the home where the student normally lives, so
Parents together = both incomes counted
Resident parent living with new partner = income of those two but not NRP count
Resident parent is single = only that income counts, even if the NRP earns squillions

Yes, it's household income that counts as a friend of mine found out when she moved in with a new partner and found that her income was included in his children's student finance calculations as well as her own. Both NRPs got away without contributing a penny, though they would have been well able to afford it.
I think it's completely wrong personally, but that is the rule.

@AngryLlama

It just seems wrong. DH is a high earner who pays his ex over £2k per month in spousal maintenance plus £500 per month for child maintenance. But none of that is declared as income. I assumed we would support DSD through uni and would rather than her take the maintenance loan.

You can still do this. Just because she’s entitled to the loan doesn’t mean she has to take it. She will possibly get bursaries and a grant though, if her mum is a low earner, which is free money so she might as well take that at least!

She doesn’t have to take it though? If he’s prepared to give her the money instead, surely she’d prefer that?

You can see why it is, if you had an NRP totally unwilling to contribute and a young person therefore unable to go to Uni.

There is a lot about student loans that is ridiculous.

For some reason it really got to me how unfair it is, and although DS was fine I actually cried thinking about how if things had been slightly different he wouldn't have been able to access university, and there must be young people out there in that position

We attended a virtual open day today and they brought it up on there - it's the household income of the house the child lives in . If the child is 50/50 they can choose which one is their main residence.

DS goes to Uni next year. My DH is a higher earner and neither DS's Dad or I are. If they took into consideration just his parents income, DS would get the full loan - but will instead get the lowest due to DH! It's a good job DH is happy to support DS through it..! I can imagine it being very difficult for some families though, what if the step parent doesn't want to take on that responsibility?!

The full maintenance loan barely covers accommodation fees she'll still massively benefit from your financial support!

Why don't you want her to take the loan? MoneySavingExpert has some good info about why it's better to take the loan than use savings/ parents paying out of pocket.

@AngryLlama

It just seems wrong. DH is a high earner who pays his ex over £2k per month in spousal maintenance plus £500 per month for child maintenance. But none of that is declared as income. I assumed we would support DSD through uni and would rather than her take the maintenance loan.

Talk to her about it. She doesn't have to apply for a loan, regardless of what her mother thinks

@AngryLlama

It just seems wrong. DH is a high earner who pays his ex over £2k per month in spousal maintenance plus £500 per month for child maintenance. But none of that is declared as income. I assumed we would support DSD through uni and would rather than her take the maintenance loan.

Well discuss it with her then! No one will hold a gun to her head and make her take out a loan.

I'm sure spousal maintenance gets taken into account but won't that stop when your dsd is at uni?

Firstly there's no problem with taking the loan and secondly she'll need further support anyway. Seemingly the done thing is that parents pay the rent and the student lives off the maintenance loan. So you might be looking at contributing say £7k p.a. for rent, they live off their maintenance loan (maybe £4.4k p.a.) and the tuition fee loan (£9250 p.a.) goes straight to the uni (so £21k p.a. ish in total)

Although if your dh was more financially astute letting her take the full loan, and saving £2k a month so she has a deposit for a flat in a few years is a better option...

@RedHelenB Sadly not! It's an old joint lives order. DH would have to go back to court to get the court order changed and he's loathe to do it.