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Parenting

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Original poster

Income support people driving me nuts, can anyone help?

4 replies

mushbrain · 04/11/2005 18:21

I'm a single mum with 2 pre schoolers and want to study to improve my prospects for when the boys go to school. I was all set to start an OU course in Feb 06, they told me I qualified for help with fees. Now income support have told me that if I am entitled to funding, grants or a student loan, I must take advantage of them and my benfit will be cut accordingly. I am terrified of them messing about with my benfit all over again, I went 4 months with nothing last time they had to adjust it. I don't know what to do, however I do know that at this stage I am not prepared to take a loan, I don't even know if I'd be able to manage studying. Has anyone else had experience of this?

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chloeb2002 · 04/11/2005 20:16

im afraid that income supprot is right. If you qualify for studnet loans and any other financial help... bursaries etc.. but not help with fees.. thats not income, you need to declare it. Im not sure about the OU? I didnt think OU qualified for studentnloans but may be totally wrong there.

nutcracker · 04/11/2005 20:21

Hmmm I thought OU only offered grants for your fees which wouldn't count surely.

slinkstah · 06/11/2005 19:31

not sure about ou, but with any normal uni, you have to get a student loan but you get childcare grant- 85% of childcare and parental learning allowance too- £1300.
you can also get housing benefit, which might not cover your full rent but should at least cover half or more.

overall i am richer on all this than on benefits. you can always consider part time degree and then all of your benefits will stay the same
if your degree will take you more than 3 years to complete its part time.

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gigglinggoblin · 06/11/2005 19:53

i found income support a nightmare to deal with. tax credit helpline is much better (you can get them if you are not working). not sure how ou works but when i went to uni my income support was cut by the amount of my student loan. i switched onto tax credits and ended up about £10 a week better off. i still got housing benefit. try calling them in the morning, they dont seem to want to trick you out of money the way income support people do! good luck

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