ESA and Student

Hi all,

I don’t get too many queries about students so I’m not up on this stuff so before I delve into researching it all I thought I’d call on the collective wisdom of the forum!

Student, 30 years old, took time off from his degree course due to health difficulties. He has only one exam to sit to finish. He has had to re-enroll with the university to sit this one exam in January 2017. The university has confirmed that he does not need to attend any lectures, classes etc.

Is he a full time student for ESA purposes? The course originally was full time but he’s only re-enrolled to sit the exam so I’m not clear on whether he’s a full-time student now or not.

Any help gratefully appreciate, thanks.

From what I remember it depends on learning hours. As long as the hours are less than 16 his ESA won’t be affected. If he gets PIP he can study full time and still claim ESA.

Yes he is still a full time student until he abandons the course

Its a long time (7 years) since I dealt with students (though I spent 14 years before that dealing with students & benefits) but from the depths of my memory - it is how the institution defines the course (as full or part time) that dictates whether a HE course is full or part time. The old hours definition of full/part time only used to still be in place for CA for full time courses (Part time was under 21 hours for CA - not sure if it still is).

I think one route that may be worth considering is whether the client can transfer to the part time version of the course (assuming there is one) and still complete their degree - though thats veering into academic advice .

It will be worth contacting the advice centre of the institution as this query is the sort of thing of thing we used to regularly deal with in my last job.