Universal credit and student finance

[Becks7683]

Does any body know how student finance in Wales will effect my universal credit? I am a single parent of a 9 month old baby and a 15 year old. I will be studying a degree full time in September.

I’m not sure about wales but in England it reduced pound for pound, so your grants are disregarded but your maintenance loan isn’t. It’s hard to explain so I’ll do a hypothetical calculation below so you can see what I mean.

Normal UC award - £1500
Maintenance Loan - £8000
Parents Learning Allowance - £1800
Special Support Element - £3000
Length of course - 9 months

Disregard PLA and SSE leaving £8000 this divided by 9 is £888.88 minus £110 for uni related materials leaves £778.88.

Meaning the new UC award for 9 months will be £721.12.

I obviously don’t know if this is the same in wales or if finance looks massively different over there but it might give you some idea as to how it may work?

Best thing to do is give UC in wales a call and ask them how they work it all out, student support services at your uni can help also.

Good luck for your degree.

Your student finance will be counted as income, even if you take it all or not.

Hi,

I'm a student single mom to a one year old in England and this is how they worked it out for me.

First of all, my student finance is only deducted for 8 months of the year (pound for pound), 4 months of the summer period I get full UC as normal.

So whatever maintenance loan I get is divided by 8. For example

8,000 maintenance loan. Divided by 8 is 1,000 a month. You get £110 a month of student finance disregarded. So £890 a month would be deducted from my Universal credit.

So if I usually get £1100 UC, £890 would be deducted and I'd only get £210 UC, but get £1000 student finance so never actually end in a worse position in that sense.

And then 4 months in the summer I'd get my full UC as normal.

You can speak to your work coach and they will tell you their policy.

I also get childcare grant so 85% of my childcare costs are covered (this can include anything OSTED registered and before/after school clubs).

Hope this helps

And as said above, I get the parents in education allowance to of £1800 a year (split via 3 terms) and these special support grants shouldn't be taken into consideration when deducting it from UC - make sure you remind them of this as they tried doing it with me until I sent them their own policy 🫣

Thank you very much for replying. I get so confused as I have severe Dyspraxia and worry about sounding stupid on the phone.

sorry to be a pest but can I ask if you have to contact UC at the end of the academic year or do they update your UC automatically?

Thank you very much for replying. Not sure how this site works but can you see my other question about UC and end of academic year?

No worries.

Your student finance letter will give an exact breakdown of what is meant to be taken into account for deductions and what isn't. I'd advise sending UC this exact letter so there's no miscommunication or writing word for word what's on the letter when it comes to the maintenance loan part.

I'm in the summer period now and I just got full UC as normal (as if I weren't a student) which they did automatically as they'd already deducted me for 8 months of being a student.

If you're worried you can pop in a message the month before (ie April) and just remind them that May is the last month you should be deducted as a student before the 4 month summer period of full UC - but they are usually pretty good.

Thanks so much! You’re fantastic at explaining things! I feel a lot better about things now and less anxious.

Where can I find universal credits policy etc?
thanks Samantha

Hya, if you go on www.gov.uk and search the information you’re looking for

Thank you

How does universal credit know you are receiving student finance will they know automatically or do you have to tell them for them to calculate how much housing element you will still be entitled to? Can someone please let me know ASAP thanks

You have to tell them. I was able to book an appointment with my work coach so I gave the letter to him from student finance which confirmed all of the loans and grants that I would get. You can put a message on your UC account for your coach telling them all the student finance information or phone them. But, you have to tell them because they will re-calculate your UC money. If you don’t inform UC about student finance you could get in serious trouble for benefit fraud

Ok I thought they would do the calculations automatically because it's through HMRC?

Also another question do they deduct alot if you're receiving the maximum amount of student loan?

I also presumed that but no you have to inform them. I get my first amount of UC in 2 weeks since starting university so I don’t know how much yet. Will let you know soon as I know.

Thank you very much for getting back to me appreciate it

Hya, so I’ve just checked my payment schedule and UC have still paid me the full amount. I think this is a mistake so I’m going to message them. Sorry I don’t have a proper answer for you yet.

I'm studying part time and my student grant hasn't effected my UC, however I didn't take the maintenance loan as from reading up its this that effects the UC payments

Yes, they deduct a lot. They pay my rent then just £75

Student finance/ universal credit

Hi I’m needing some advice as I’ve posted on my journal however no one is getting back to me. I receive universal credit due to being signed off work because of my mental health. I receive limited capability for work and work related activity and also pip. I have a three year old daughter that will be going to school in September.

Ive recently found a degree course that I’m interested in however I’m worried I won’t be able to afford my rent and living costs etc on just my student loan (I haven’t applied yet) I’ve read online that you can be eligible for universal credit if you have been assessed for limited capability to work before starting your course. However also from what I’ve read it’s conflicting and people are saying that isn’t true.

Has anyone been in this situation?

Any advice would be really appreciated as I don’t want to put myself and my daughter in a worse position.
Thanks x

I'm sorry that all the information is conflicting and confusing - to make things even more confusing, England and Wales have different rules. I think the best thing would be for you to phone Citizens Advice Bureau.