Student finance for student with poor family

[SweatyBetty20]

My estranged brother died recently and I am rebuilding my relationship with his child who is a teenager. They lived very hand to mouth, have no savings, and without judging, my brother’s partners extended family have very low career aspirations - they live in social housing and are either on benefits or in low paid jobs in shops or distribution. The remaining parent is on universal credit and doesn’t work due to mental health issues.

My brother’s child has expressed a desire to go to university. I feel I have a duty of care to try and help as much as I can to support them to achieve their ambitions - in this case nursing. When I went to uni I was the last cohort to get a grant. I don’t have kids and have no idea of what they would be entitled to.

Is anyone able to advise on what kinds of finance/loans/grants/bursaries would be available to them so that I could try and work out where the financial gaps or shortfalls might be and try to fill the gaps? I’d need to start really putting money away over the next 3 years but would love her to be able to progress.

The government website has the calculator - they use the household income where the student is resident to calculate the loan they can receive, everyone gets the tuition loan but maintenance varies from £4k to £9k depending on the means test. The mother will be emailed an assessment form once the student finance initial form is submitted. In addition if you qualify for full loan, some universities give an additional bursary eg dd got £3k per year until I moved in with dp but that was for low income engineering students only in that case and was automatic (we didn't know until they told her)

The other website to look at is the Sutton trust who run summer schools - they are aimed at low income first in the family to attend university teens. Also Cambridge at least run their own - Dd went to Cambridge for 3 days and even travel was paid

All unis can be different with accommodation. I seem to remember looking round York that all the nursing students were housed together.

If she is going to a sixth form college for A levels, look at their website to see if additional bursaries for trips, meals and travel are available. They will often apply to children of parents on UC. Also contact the student support departments of those colleges to see where most support is available. Children from low income families who are academically able should be of interest to them to help.

She would be better doing Health and Social care Btec . It is equivalent to 3 Alevels but includes lots of placements, so lots of practical experience which these type of courses require.
My DD did it and graduated with a first as a Occupational therapist last month from the top university for this course , her friends on the H&S course are now at uni doing nursing and midwifery

@bruffin

She would be better doing Health and Social care Btec . It is equivalent to 3 Alevels but includes lots of placements, so lots of practical experience which these type of courses require. My DD did it and graduated with a first as a Occupational therapist last month from the top university for this course , her friends on the H&S course are now at uni doing nursing and midwifery

It won't exist - being replaced by T levels. 🤷‍♀️

www.gov.uk/government/publications/introduction-of-t-levels/introduction-of-t-levels#when-they-will-start

www.tlevels.gov.uk/students

The second one has a look-up, so you can put in your postcode and find the nearest providers for the T level you want to take.

Thanks all for all this information - there is so much to research. I’ll start small, and see how far I get - especially on the summer schools, alternative courses, and taking a science.

Dd got onto a nursing degree at York last year with Politics, RE and business A levels. Not all unis want sciences for nursing

If you commit to working in Wales for a couple of years after the course, you can get tuition fees free:- www.swansea.ac.uk/undergraduate/fees-and-funding/student-loans-and-grants/nhs-funding/#can-commit-to-working-in-nhs-wales=is-expanded&tuition-fees=is-expanded

DiamanteFan
It sounds good but there are a lot of disadvantages, it was not worth my DD taking it up 3 years ago.

1. if you choose to drop out , you cannot use student finance to pay back the fees. You have to pay back the fees instantly and cannot use the student finance scheme to pay them back.
2. again if you dont work the two years you have to pay back the 3 years fees straight away, but that is pro rata depending on the time you spend working for NHS.

3.The maintenance loans to non welsh students are a lot less at the time, so my dd would have a lot less to live on, On the Welsh NHS bursary she would have got around 3K to live on where as she got 5k maintenance loan. Also now you cant apply for the £5,000 nhs bursary if you study in Wales.

1. You pay the student finance maintenance grant back the same way so 9% of earnings over 25k whether you are paying back just 10k in maintenance loans or 45k in maintenance plus. It is only beneficial in the very long term.

DD just graduated from Cardiff doing OT and will be doing a year on rotation. Cardiff is a great city to be a student in and rents are considerably cheaper than some of the UK . One of her other others was Oxford Brooks, her friend who did midwifery there has had to take out extra loans to cover the rent, which is about double my dd's rent in Cardiff.