Postgraduate Loan + Benefits

[Fairy2015]

I am just wondering if anyone on here has the postgraduate loan and is in receipt of benefits?

I am receipt of income support and housing benefit and re-training while my son is at pre-school. Benefits have told me this is classed as income and a decision maker will decide if this will be disregarded.. or not once I have applied for the loan.

My loan will cover tuition fees, and a small portion of travel, books and childcare. I would just like to know if anyone has this loan without having their benefits reduced.

Thanks!

This is the legislation for postgrad loans loan legislation Benefits legislation -30% of the total loan value counts as income for the purposes of benefits, the rest is disregarded. That 30% is spread over 42/43 weeks or the length of the course if it's a 1 year MA as SF doesn't count (ie is completely disregarded) for benefits purposes over the summer. They then disregard £303 for travel costs and £390 for books per year. I would presume that you will lose some benefits-if you get the maximum 10k, then 3k with £693 disregarded is £2307 divided by 42 is £54.50 a week. This is your excess income. I hope this makes sense

Thanks so much that's really helpful, I have not been told this. Do you know what happens if you don't take the full £10k out, and I only take say £8k? And I plan to do this over 2 years, so will the books/travel be taken into account each year?

I'm also curious in how then effects housing benefit?

Do you understand how the underlying entitlement to benefits is worked out? Everyone has what's called an "applicable amount", the amount of money the government believes that they need to live. This is made up of a basic amount (how many adults in your family, are you single or in a couple) plus any child elements and premiums from disability or caring. Housing benefit then adds on extra elements for housing costs. When working out how much of your postgrad loan is "income" they do the calculation discussed above (30% of 10k minus amount disregarded for books/travel divided by 42/43 weeks) and then take away the weekly amount calculated from each weekly benefit payment. This means it is fairly likely that you will loose some income related benefit (ESA, JSA, IS) but, as HB includes housing elements, the applicable amount for HB is much larger and so it is fairly likely that you will still get full HB, especially if you have children.
If you only take out 8k then it is still 30% but of 8k this time. If you take the loan out over 2 years then they divide the amount over 2 years and, yes, the books/travel amount counts for each year. Remember that SF doesn't count over the summer-so from June till the first week in September.