Do you know if a full time student (lone parent) receiving an NHS bursary can claim Income Support or Tax credits?

[allgonebellyup]

I'm hoping to start a post grad professional qualification, funded by the NHS next year. However, according to the calculator on the site, I am only entitled to £7k for the year, and be expected to live off this and support 2 children alone. At the moment i bring in nearly 30k including work and tax credits, so there is no way i could manage on that!

Does anyone know if you can claim IS or tax credits as well as NHS bursary?

Hi, not sure re NHS, but dh did his PGCE 2009/10, and we received full tax credits, along with student loans and a subject bursary of £9k.

Not sure but you might be entitled to IS as well as you're a lone parent.

Along with the regular student loans/grants, you can apply for a childcare support as well (I'm pretty sure that one is not something you have to repay).

ooh, thanks, my 2nd option is to do PGCE, and i wasnt sure if i could get tax credits for that. Good to know!

You can get Tax Credits, we did when I studied an NHS funded course for 3 years. (disclaimer: this was in 2004 - 2007 so might have changed, given the Revenue a call to check!). The NHS Bursary isn't considered taxable income so you don't need to declare it. The downside is that you won't get anything towards childcare as studying full time doesn't count as working. We found that we used the bursary and student loan to pay the nursery fees! Although most unis have discretionary grants to help low income students, and you might find they have something to help with childcare if you need it.

Don't know about income support as we didn't qualify. Good luck!

Hi, I start an bursary funded course in September. I have been told by my lone parent adviser that my IS will stop, I may get housing benefit still & council tax benefit. I will still get child tax credits. I would ask for an appointment with a lone parent adviser at the job centre. You don't need to tell the IS department until 4 weeks before you start Uni, but get the advice now.
Also, as this is probably (like mine) a lower amount of funding compared to Nursing courses, which are entirely funded by the NHS. Please ring Student Finance England and ask them what they advise you to apply for. They are so helpful! I was stunned to find out I have to apply for both lots of funding for my course. Good luck.