Single parent limited employment prospects. Any student finance wizards?

[Preschoolermum99]

I’m a single parent who wants to return to study but concerned I won’t get finance for more than one year. Currently working as a bank hca but need to find something for when my son starts school.

I’ve effectively used up all 4 years of funding. didnt finish a levels (personal reasons), I did a foundation year/ cert he in a humanities course
started bsc nursing and became pregnant with my son.
applied for compelling reasons for an additional year (granted)
returned the next year to finish the last part of the year (nursing programmes are September-august)
started second year and left half way through due to personal reasons (have evidence and they are aware)
relocated, now single and limited childcare options.
was to due to start health and social care with year 2 entry a year and a half ago but student finance only gifted me one more year.

foundation year also affects adult level 3 course funding options.

Was recently made redundant from data entry Job from home with perfect hours so only started this job a couple months ago. Alternative options to apply for were supermarket or McDonald’s.

I’d love to go back to nursing but I can’t do the 12.5 hour shifts full time, only every other weekend when my son is at his dads. Healthcare courses are apparently exempt from usual finance rules and you can recomplete years anyway. I could only do odp (uni encouraged application) here due to my lack of level 3 qualifications required for other local healthcare courses. ODP means working 24 hours per week plus study (and not my ideal choice or interest).

people say that you don’t need a degree but in my recent employment searching it definitely increases prospects. I also don’t drive yet (only just starting expensive lessons back up, lack of tests, theory is also going to expire!).

im keeping an eye on civil service jobs and there’s a couple I will apply for and would feel like winning a lot of gold, but I’d rather study and get a degree completed and have more options to move into other areas. I also don’t want to claim UC forever and give my son a good childhood but equally don’t want him in breakfast and after school club constantly. I appreciate this is a hard reality for many though.
If I completed a degree I could apply for probation officer roles, social work masters etc.

I also saw this https://www.hallamstudentsunion.com/pageassets/selfhelp-money/A-guide-to-Compelling-Personal-Reasons.pdf

would this mean I could potentially be awarded 2 gift years? I don’t think I could afford the commute to London anymore but there is a local uni.
there’s also a public health degree which is less intensive contact hours wise, exactly in my interest area (where I wanted to end up years down the line) and good (well paid) options for progression with further funded training full or part time.

does anyone know about private finance options for degrees also? With my low income it could be stretching myself too far. I would consider it if it was just one year of tuition fees. I could ask parents to fund/loan part of 9k but the answer would probably be no.

if I’m interpreting the article properly I could potentially be awarded 2 years? Sfe have made errors in the past though due to the complexity of my starts and stops.

my previous study also affects open uni funding.

I’ve had lots of rough events happen in my life and now it feels like employment prospects wise I’m a lost cause. The majority of my experience is in healthcare/clinical but without a registration and with the hours of these environments my options are limited.

sorry if this isn’t clear but if anyone has any advice or works for sfe or a uni funding team and knows a bit more about the process it would be much appreciated!

sorry for bad spelling/grammar/punctuation.

Your post is a bit all over the place. Nursing, ODP, probation work, civil service, social work, public health.

What do you WANT to do?

If you studied science or health part time you'd qualify for SFE funding. Similarly as you know some HCPC are fully findable regardless of previous years used.

But focus!

@titchy I know, at this point I’m desperate and with limited options.

my loose plan before I started nursing, was to do nursing, specialise, then move into a public health/research role (15-20 years ish). I love policy and social determinants of health etc. Hence why alternative roles I would enjoy would be probation/social work based. The civil service jobs are probation based but no moving up the ladder without prior degree (can be unrelated). Civil service is also very family friendly. This would still be my ideal choice however isn’t possible. If I couldn’t do nursing, public health would be my next best option.

With science or health do you mean access courses? Would I still get the student finance even though I’ve used so much previously? There are no part time degree options in these subjects around here either.

Can student finance and find out for sure. It often depends when in the year you ceased study, and how much money was already transferred to the university on your behalf.

Have you thought of an apprenticeship or a Higher Technical Qualification?

Thank you I will call and check. When I search for higher technical qualifications the only ones locally are a levels or btec beauty etc. same funding restrictions as access courses and no point redoing a levels if I can’t do a degree, no point doing beauty as I can’t earn enough doing school hours only unfortunately. No interest in construction or electrics.

It’s not for degrees but there’s something called an adult learner loan (or similar) that you can use for college courses, many of which train you to do a career. You can get them even if you’ve maxed out SFE.

The compelling personal reasons thing is a bit of a red herring, DP applied for this after leaving degree near the end because of fleeing domestic violence - it was life or death and there’s tons of evidence for it but they still only gave 1yr extra. It doesn’t allow you another degree, just the year you lost due to the CPR. Still, you might as well ask if they’re willing to give you something.

If you can study public health part time locally you may well find that it counts as a science and you'd get full funding. Or OU if nothing locally.

You usually get the length of your course plus a year, but I can’t work out how many years of your funding you’ve actually used from your post?

Gah- my post should say ‘call’ student finance.

But you may also want to consider apprenticeships- there are some pretty awesome ones out there

Thanks everyone, I can’t seem to find any suitable (distance/child friendly) apprenticeships. It looks like part time public health may be an option!

does anyone know anything about how part time study affects universal credit? If it’s deducted £1 for £1 I will get approximately 100 per month. Then still be expected to work 25 hours a week on top? Therefore reducing award to 0?

Apprenticeship vacancies are like any other job vacancy - they come and go

Just looked into this for a colleague looking to do a one year masters. Can get funding but UC have told her she needs to work 16 hours a week on top (has a 2 year old). She pointed out that she’d be able to earn significantly afterwards and come off all benefits but it was definitely a no, so do look into that aspect too. You can start your own business and they might, if you’re lucky, give you a year to get it up and going but after that you are expected to earn at least minimum wage for the hours you work. It’s definitely much more challenging for single parents to improve their situation than it used to be.

@secretskillrelationships i agree, it makes no sense! I don’t want to work for minimum wage and need a uc top up forever. It seems public Health part time is out as I’ve just seen the contact hours are anything between 9am-9pm. I will email to see if they can confirm possible contact hours but that’s the case it’s just not doable!

wish I had a decent business idea. My town could do with a kids concept store to be fair in one desirable shopping district but the money needed to set it up just isn’t doable. Well it could be, but at far too high a risk and for likely little profit and to live off.

I’ve found one apprenticeship pop up which I will apply for. Fingers crossed something materialises.