UC and maintenence loan

[Ellie37]

Hi I hope someone can clarify for me please.

I'm looking to start university next year. Currently I work part time so get a top of from UC. I'm a single parent to a 6 year old.

My uni course will be full time and I won't have time to work between uni and raising my son. But I'm not sure I'll be able to afford to go to uni.

Does the maintenence loan say £10k get split over 9 months of uni and then that is deducted £1 for £1 from my universal credit award?

Currently I'm getting £1100 a month from work and £750 from UC. if I stop working I'll lose £1100 and my universal credit will be wiped too?

I'm hoping I've got this wrong because how can parents afford to go to uni otherwise?

Hope someone can help x

I don’t think you can get UC, but you can get extra finance (not a loan) as you have a child. Possibly help with childcare costs. It is also worth seeing if Universities offer extra grants/bursaries. https://www.gov.uk/student-finance-register-login
https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/articles/claiming-universal-credit-if-youre-student
gives some advice.

Also it is worth looking at how full time your course is. For example Nursing or Science/Engineering compared to History. On some you might be able to keep working a bit.

UC disregard I think it is about £110 per month of the loan for books/travel, and then the rest is divided across the 9 months and treated as income. So if you got £10k - £990 (£110 x 9 months) which will be disregarded, you’ve got basically £9000 which will divided across the 9 months and treated as income so your UC would go down based on the taper, which might be to zero yes.

Unfortunately for parents to go to uni they typically have a partner or family who support them through it financially, or they had saved to support themselves through it.

While students cannot normally claim UC there is an exception for parents.

Your maintenance loan is split between the monthly Assessment Periods that fall in term time including the AP in which term starts but excluding the one in which it ends. For most people that means eight or nine APs. £110 is deducted in each AP for student expenses with the rest reducing UC £/£.

If you're a single parent make sure you get any additional cash you're entitled to. University pastoral people should be able to point you the right way for that.

Youay be able to access a hardship fund at uni. Depending on what course you are interested in UCE (in Birmingham) is offering £5k bursary that does not have to be repair to all their students who take one of their full time courses. In addition they also offer other financial support too. I don't understand how they can offer more financial support to students but they do, check out their prospectus.