Does anyone here have children in private school and understands the bursary process specifically the legalities around it?
In short we received a bursary- got it and then applied for a higher amount due to redundancy which triggered an external reapplication- that was disastrous as the external company in charge of the application made errors that impacted the application and posed us as withholding information which we didn’t and proved this. But the relationship with the school as tarred from this.
The company gave us less than one working day to submit information on a Friday evening due Saturday and submitted the form and said we withheld information. Sorted that with the school and company- and did another application which they essentially denied further bursary due to the original mishap.So a complete waste of time and energy as they literally want evidence of all of your personal and financial information.
Essentially after all of this, the school said, get another job. I’m doing a masters and have a small business as a back story and am a lone parent.
I got another job which was double my original salary but since the bursary was already granted it would trigger another application as you have to declare a change in financial circumstances. They are apprehensive of doing this as the money was allocated for this year already- and for 2025 they will reassess in January for everyone- so it’s more work for them.
Everyone advised against taking the job as there was a very short notice period from this role which meant that though it was high paying, I’d have to reapply for more bursary if it ended, plus the reasons I have above as I’d have to reapply for the bursary should the role end- and if that money was allocated to another family I’d be in trouble. This is also impacted by more applications for bursaries due to the VAT being applied on school fees.
I was told that if I kept reapplying then they’d have to assess if the bursary was right for us as a family- but equally we have to declare changes of circumstances. So that puts me in a conundrum.
Now I’ve got an offer for another higher paying role and don’t want to risk losing the bursary but need advice on how to protect this for my child in the event that the role comes to an end - considering the reapplication is in January- and I need to abide by their rules with a change of financial circumstances.
What do I do?
Hope this makes sense. Any advice appreciated.