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Forum Home  →  Discussion  →  Housing costs  →  Thread

income from NHS student bursary

Ruth_T
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Volunteer adviser - Corby Borough Welfare Rights & CAB

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We have been asked for help by a single parent student, aged 25, on a graduate nursing course.  She lives in private rented accommodation for which she receives housing benefit, however the latest calculations differ widely from the pre-course estimate which she requested.  The problem appears to lie with the treatment of her NHS Bursary.  This is broken down as follows:

NHS Bursary Basic Award £2617
Non-means tested Grant £1000
Dependant’s Allowance £2424
Extra Weeks Allowance £1826
Parents Learning Allowance £1192
Child Care Allowance       £6630

Of these, the Parents Learning Allowance and Child Care Allowance have been fully disregarded from income, but the other items have not been disregarded.  Is this correct?

HB Regs 2006 reg 59(4) applies a disregard to grants for dependants paid under reg 19 of the Education (Student Support) Regs 2005.  Does this also cover the Dependant’s Allowance paid with an NHS Bursary?

HB Anorak
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Reg 59(4) is a very specific reference to the mainstream student finance component known as the Parents Learning Allowance.  The reference does not cover the NHS component of that name - as the Regs stand the NHS PLA should be taken into account as income and not disregarded.  So the Reg 59(4) mistake in this case actually makes your client better off - she is being overpaid HB, not underpaid.

Reg 59(4) certainly doesn’t apply to the regular dependants’ allowance of £2424.  It can be difficult to select the correct period over which such income is attributed, but I think this one is referred to in Reg 59(6) so it is taken into account over 52 or 53 weeks (it’s 53 this year because there 53 weeks between the first Mondays of September 14 & 15). It’s not disregarded anyway.

The other thing that struck me about that breakdown is the absence of a loan.  The figures look like standard NHS 2012+ cohort finance rates and that package includes a non-means tested loan of £2324.  Even if the claimant doesn’t have one the Council is supposed to take it into account as income.  Have they done that?

Ruth_T
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Thanks for taking the trouble to reply to my enquiry.

I have now dug a little bit deeper and have accessed the HB Guidance Manual https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/236969/hbgm-c2-student-claims.pdf

Para 2.271 of Vol C2, Student Claims, deals with NHS Income and states that bursaries are subject to the “normal disregards”.  There is no specific mention of the NHS PLA so, in the absence of any other rules, should the NHS PLA be treated in the same way as the Parents Learning Allowance for other students, and be disregarded (para 2.174)?  [I know it’s only Guidance, and can’t find anything addressing the NHS PLA in the Regs.]

Para 2.273 reiterates that NHS dependants’ grants are taken into account over the same period as the bursary.

Our client did only query the way in which her NHS bursary was being treated.  She does receive a student loan, which has been taken into account with a standard disregard for books & travel of £693, which appears to be correct.

HB Anorak
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DWP has long since given up trying to maintain up to date guidance on students: that extract from the GM is dated 2009 and there has been a whole new student finance scheme introduced since then for cohorts from 2012 onwards.

Because the HB Regs are full of obscure references to a pretty complex set of overlapping student finance schemes, it can be difficult to work out which component the HB Regs are trying to reference.  Reg 59(4) though does not seem to capture the NHS version of the PLA.  Whether this is an accidental oversight or deliberate policy I have no idea.  I was alerted to this anomaly recently by Nottingham Council, who had asked around and found that the Northern Ireland Housing Executive follows the same approach.  DWP told them that they were right in DWP’s opinion to treat the NHS PLA as income, although a lot of councils probably read as far as the words “parents learning allowance” and assume the Reg 59(4) disregard applies to it - as your client’s Council seems to have done.  But as I see it the silence of the HB Regs concerning the NHS PLA means that it isn’t disregarded, simply because there is nothing to say that it is.

As for the period over which these grant elements should be taken into account, here again the Regs point to obscure outside references.  It is 52/53 weeks in the case of dependants’ grants paid under 1968 Health Service legislation and 2003 mandatory award Regs for mainstream students.  I couldn’t tell you who these apply to.  DWP has left the building - no use reading their guidance.  It appears that the 2003 mandatory award regs have not been updated since 2008 so I assume they only apply to a dwindling cohort.  Who cares really?  The alternative is that dependants’ allowances are taken into account alongside the loan, which normally means 42 or 43 weeks (43 this year).  Either you condense a higher weekly income into a shorter period, or you spread a lower weekly income over a longer period. As long as the student retains residual HB entitlement at all times the result is the same over the course of the year.

I remember a few years ago trying to start a campaign to persuade DWP to explain exactly what each of the external references in HB reg 59(6) means: it’s all very well having guidance saying treat this component one way and that component another way, but without that advice being linked to the student finance references in the HB Regs it is very hard to know.  I came to the conclusion in the end that DWP didn’t really know (or care for that matter) what Reg 59(6) means, and as I say they have stopped updating their guidance on this subject now.

So in conclusion: the NHS PLA I think probably should be taken into account as income; the £2424 dependant’s grant should also be taken into account.  The period over which they should be apportioned, well ... who knows?  I am guessing 53 weeks under Reg 59(6).

 

[ Edited: 20 Oct 2014 at 09:36 am by HB Anorak ]
Ruth_T
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I’ve learned more about HB and student income in the last three days than in 3 decades.

So, I’ll advise our client to let sleeping dogs lie.

Many thanks for leading me through this minefield.
Ruth