SFE - can just one parent support application?

[MochaMad]

I am anticipating an issue for my DSD over applying for her student loan for 24/25.

Her parents went through a horrible divorce and we have had a stressful few years making sure my partner (her Dad) can see her regularly. He has a good relationship with her - mostly by phone and text, he sees her in person as often as he can but this is about every other weekend for the day. She has almost no relationship with me and my kids because her Mum had forbidden it. DSD seems to go along with this because her Mum is so hard to deal with.

DSD has applied to several UK Unis and is likely to get into at least one (if not all 3). She had
her heart set on one in particular. My DP took her to loads of open days. Her Mum only 1 and didn’t seem interested. We thought this was odd at the time… but now it’s become clearer why.

Her Mum (who she lives with) is very controlling and seems to have decided that she should go a University in another country in the EU - where she also intends to move back to to once DSD goes to Uni. She will then rent out the flat bought after her divorce settlement in the UK. She also owns a property overseas which she / they both will live in.

For my DSD this will mean ongoing control and make it far trickier for my DP to see her as often due to cost.

She has said she’d rather go to the UK Uni but her Mum is trying to convinced her that the student loan is too much to pay back (she told her she’d have to pay back £300 a month once she’s working which is a complete lie). The Uni in the EU will be free. It’s looking very likely that her Mum will refuse to support her application.

We have just been looking at the SFE forms and it’s oddly geared towards both parents as an entity - you don’t seem to be able to have one supporting the application and the other not (I’m reading it as estranged from both and this is something we can’t prove).

She lives with her Mum now and will continue to do so up until the point of going to Uni - which is when her Mum intends to leave the UK. I don’t see how we can apply to support from our UK address if she doesn’t live with us.

Ideally DSD would apply and put my DP and I on the form as ‘support’ and leave her Mum off it (as she plans to leave the country). But would SFE accept that - the addresses won’t match up.

Also it’s horribly sad that approaching 18 she should be becoming more independent, but instead might be continually micromanaged and controlled.

Has anyone had any experience of this?

Student finance is based on the family income of the house you live in so if your parents are divorced it is only based on the income of the parent you live with and their partner if they have one living with them. If you want it to be based on your income your daughter will have to put your address as her home address.

You can definitely do student finance with only one parent because I did.

My DD did live with me though.

She may need to put you down as where she lives, and make it true by moving in with you.

What is mums household income and what is your household income? That will impact your options a bit

She can use her mum's address and tick the box that states the household income is higher than the threshold for minimum parental contribution. That way her mum won't be sent anything that asks her to prove the household income. She would though of course only receive the minimum loan so your dp would have to top it up to the max - around £5k a year.

Surely she needs to be resident int he U.K. to qualify for student finance? And she won't be if she lives with her mother abroad out of term time?

I'd assume if she goes to uni in the UK and her mum moves abroad then she'd change her address to her dad's.

If your parents are divorced or separated, only 1 parent has to support the SF application. It’s supposed to be the RP but if her DM is leaving the country, she can use your address as presumably that will be her UK address? However, the SF is based on the household income so your income as well as your DH’s will have to be declared to SFE.

Exactly. This is what we would do.

The address thing is tricky because we live a fair distance away. SFE will likely realise she’d not be living 60 miles away from her school (assuming this is recorded on the form). And she absolutely doesn’t live with us - never even visits due to the situation.

Our household income is about 30-40 K (DP self employed so cannot be precise). I have one dependent child which will be factored in. We have discussed it and I have agreed we can do it as a household to support her.

DSD’s Mum’s income we have no idea… possibly about the same. If she moves back home to her original place, she will be renting out a property in the UK for about 1.5-2K a month. She has a property to move to abroad which she owns outright. I’m assuming this is partly why this is all happening,

To add: but her Mum will likely only move abroad in Aug/Sept - which is why this is so complicated.

DSD will not live with us prior to this and anyway her school is too far away.

Ah okay.
So if you lived nearby and had a similar household income, she could have just put you down and it wouldn’t have made a difference, or been flagged in any way.
But, it sounds like mums income would be higher and it wouldn’t be realistic for her to be living with you, so you’d be at risk of the application being flagged as fraudulent.

I would suggest contacting SFE to discuss your particular case as it’s slightly out of the norm.
The other option, as suggested above, is to just claim the minimum loan, no need for parent details but you’d need to top her up substantially. The minimum for next year is 3790 and if your household income is 30k she’d receive 7887 or 6440 if you’re 40k, so it’s a fair bit she’d be missing out on.
As a side note, if her mum is telling her a load of lies about the finance system, please make sure she has access to accurate info

The minimum maintenance loan for a UK full-timestudent, living away from home and studying outside London (based on a well over the limit household income of £90 000) is actually £4767 for 2024/25. So a bit less to have to top up somehow.

https://www.gov.uk/student-finance-calculator/y/2024-2025/uk-full-time/9250.0/away-outside-london/90000.0/no/none-of-the-above

That is assuming you’re living independently for uni - the 3k figure is students living at home and the lowest figure you could theoretically get.
ive attached the full breakdown

Thank you for info.

Frustratingly we now just have to watch and wait, see how it pans out. Too much pressure and we’d be behaving like her Mum…

My DP will ensure she knows the full financial facts, knows that it really is HER choice and also that we will support her SFE application. Even if we had to top up to the amounts given above, it’s still significantly less that my DP is (voluntarily) paying in child maintenance. And that money would go directly to DSD. So we’d be better off in that respect. We will contact SFE with a hypothetical enquiry anyway.

She has an interview coming up at a really good Uni in the UK soon, so we’ll see how that goes. She’s a clever young lady - doing 4 A Levels with As and Bs predicted.

Obviously we both hope she stays in the UK, but not sure what more we can do.

An update on this situation:

The plan for DSD to go to Uni overseas has failed. She stood her ground - doesn’t want to go, no brainer - the Uni she visited is no way near as good as the UK ones she has now been offered. Mum is now saying she will remain in the UK.

DSD has had offers from 3 Unis. One very prestigious one near where she lives, but very high grades expected,, DSD visited and didn’t really like it much, despite the reputation. Two other excellent UK Unis with slightly lower grades expected, she really enjoyed the visits and prefers either of those. So she responded to UCAS.

So her Mum is now trying to force her to stay at home and go to the prestigious one. She wants her to stay at home for the duration of her degree and is now putting pressure on DSD to withdraw her UCAS choices. She can amend once but not twice.

Mum is putting on pressure based on finances and frightening her about life of poverty as a student, debt and making outrageous claims about paying it back. We have repeatedly put this right. But her Mum is very controlling.

Poor DSD is under a lot of pressure with exams now - her Mum insisted she do 4 A levels when only 3 are necessary. She’s trying to just study and her Mum is making her feel bad/ungrateful/guilty about her choice to leave home and go to a Uni away. Like most 18 year olds do….

It’s painful watching this all unfold. My DP is going to see her today to try to reinforce her choices and independence.

If the prestigious one is Oxbridge, living at home might not be an option. Cambridge require undergrads to live within 3 miles; at Oxford I think it is a more generous 25 miles.

No - it’s another Uni - in London

True but Cambridge does give dispensations to live further afield, although usually there would have to be a good reason eg disability, children, a partner who works in a different location, caring responsibilities.

London is very expensive for a student. If finances are an issue, might be best to go elsewhere.

If she’s made her firm and insurance on UCAS I would just be encouraging her not to discuss it with mum anymore. Lots of ‘well we’ll discuss after results day’, so she can focus on her exams.
Are school aware of the situation? They can provide support. Could she move in with you straight after exams are done?