Balls. I have lost my uni fee funding. Help!

[BeyondTheVirtualActivist]

Any suggestions of specific places to ask, or failing that, suggestions as to how I can acquire £600 by June? From companies/charities etc, this is not a begging thread!

As I'm in Wales, student loan for OU may be a problem (as its not my first year) but the OU are on the case for me as I am studying "full time". If they come back to say its okay then great, but I want a plan B. Grant entitlement is what brings it down to £600 (if i do fewer modules, I'll also get less of a grant). DH earns too much for welsh government grants etc, but til my PIP goes through sometime in the next 20 years a lot of his wages are paying for disability related stuff for me.

I know I can defer for a year, but my degree is one of the things keeping me going with my shit health atm, so that's an absolute last resort.

OU have an internal charity for people struggling with fees, have already contacted them.

Mumsnetters are amazing and can solve any crisis, so I know you can help. :)

I've posted about charities on a couple of other threads, can you search? Not having a good night, but I will come back sometime over the weekend.

Damn. How annoying. Not totally sure how it works there as I am with OU in England but there is a thread in student parents currently that links to another thread about how to find charitable trusts etc.

One thing I will mention is that you are entitled to council tax discount if studying two modules at once as it works out as full time hours. I only found out about this recently in my last year!

Sorry it isn't it is here in HE have bumped for you

Thanks, I'll go and have a look now :)

Would it be possible to put the remaining 600 on an overdraft? how about OUSBA? So you can pay it over the 9 months?

Ousba was the "funding" that i meant for my first year. Dh had time off sick, bills werent paid and credit rating went down. Even though I've never missed an ousba payment, they wont lend it to me now :(

Overdrafts went along with credit cards, everything is in a dmp now.
If I had til the course started, i could probably find it, its just june is way too close, only one payday between now and when its due!

Oh no! I had no idea they could refuse you like that. Man that sucks. Anything around the house you could sell? ebay? Babysitting?

Do you know anyone you could borrow it off or that you could put it on their credit card and pay the payments every month as you would be doing to OUSBA? The interest would pronably only be a bit higher?

Hang on. from this year all students are entitled to apply for student loans through SLC to pay part time fees (used to only be full time) is this an option or do they not have it in Wales? DO NOT QUIT YOUR DEGREE

Thats what i'm hoping for, perhaps that i can raise as much as i can for now, and then borrow the rest from someone.

Rather annoyingly, I've been told that the student loan ou people will get back to me in the next 14days, then the ou charity application (for which you must have already been refused a loan) takes 4-6 weeks. That takes me past the payment date already anyway. And I signed up for the courses the first day that i could, I have as long as is possible to sort funding, but it still might not be long enough! :(

Loan showed as an option before i signed up, so that was my original plan. Then when i went to "pay", there was no option for loan payment! Which is what the ou are looking at for me. Did wonder if only "new" students in wales were entitled to the loan perhaps? Ou are on the case, but up to 14 days for an answer...

We had a post about this at work though is for engineering:
Financial support is available through the Engineering institutions such as the IMechE.

Visit www.imeche.org/awards

If you know a former Engineering Apprentice that wishes to attend university, the Whitworth Scholarship may be of interest.

www.whitworthscholarships.org.uk

Link to the other thread

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/further_education/a2044530-Is-there-a-fairy-grant-fund-to-help-Mums-going-back-into-further-education

Wow, thank you sashh, that link is a brilliant start!

Breakingdad, thanks for the links, not applicable to my course though

Oo, had a thought. If a company donates, is it done from pre-tax? Thought i might be able to sway it as an advantage and get friends/families who are self employed to donate to me...

Turn2us website also good for grant making trusts, Elizabeth Finn Trust might be able to help depending on occupation (possibly regular support).

When writing to trusts you need to spell out

• why you need the money (personal and financial circumstances)
• what you will spend it on - and financials of how much you need, where you will get balance (applying to other trusts etc)
• how this support will help you long term

If you had the time and inclination I would call a few before writing to make your case personally.

No tax benefits for anyone helping you I'm afraid as you're not a registered charity!

There is a site called 'Funder finder' which we can access via our careers team. It might be worth having a look at that.

I've got oodles of time, thats a great idea

Haha, I had a feeling that might be the case

Heard back from student loans, def no loan for me. Loans only available for new students, who are paying higher fees than old students.

Rubbish

Most uni have a hardship fund that is very accessible.

I just wrote my begging letter now :)

Any progress?

Thanks for checking :)
Letter sent to the ou charity and application to finance for the grant today (plus my DSA continuation form thingy)

Have a load of addresses now to sent more letters, which i have to type up, plus i was told to try local parish as they have done fundint for someone before. Have an essay due this week too though so been trying to split the time between the two. :)