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Student income and universal credit

Charlotte R
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WRAMAS - Bristol City Council

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Hi,
Hoping for some help with this query about how and when student finance is taken into account for UC claimant.

Cl is in receipt of UC and is full time student at uni (has a child).  He has just completed his final year, end date 22/6/20.
He did not claim UC until 10/3/20.
He has student loan and grant totalling £12,628 for this academic year.

UC have simply divided £12628 by 12 and said that this is his monthly income - am I right in thinking that this is incorrect? and that they should be deducting £110 pcm as well?
As the claim was only made on 10th March, should his student income only be taken into account for the 3 APs ending 9/6/20 as during the most recent AP the course had ended?

My query really is how should they be calculating his student income, is it over 12 months? or less if his course for instance started in Oct and ends in June?
Am I missing something?

Grateful for any pointers!

Daphne
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Hi Charlotte

Looking at CPAG pg 883-4 it looks like -

- you’re right that £110 should be disregarded in each AP
- student income is ignored in the AP in which the last week of the course is held
- i think the income should be divided by the number of assessment periods that the course covers
- it also says that where and grant and loan are both awarded for the same period then the grant is disregarded unless it is for maintenance of someone in your UC claim eg child or for rent met by UC

S2uABZ
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Money adviser - Aberdeen City Council Financial Inclusion Team

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I know this relates to Scotland but still gives you a good idea on how Student Income is calculated.

CPAG have launched a new eLearning course on benefits for students. This free course, Scottish student income and universal credit, helps you understand the impact of Scottish student loans and grants on universal credit. It should take around 45 minutes to complete and is free to take part.
https://elearning.cpag.org.uk/enrol/index.php?id=41

Charles
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Daphne - 30 July 2020 04:18 PM

- it also says that where and grant and loan are both awarded for the same period then the grant is disregarded unless it is for maintenance of someone in your UC claim eg child or for rent met by UC

But remember that the amount of the loan taken into account will be the amount available to the claimant assuming no grant had been made.

VRW
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Charlotte R - 30 July 2020 03:39 PM

Hi,
Hoping for some help with this query about how and when student finance is taken into account for UC claimant.

Cl is in receipt of UC and is full time student at uni (has a child).  He has just completed his final year, end date 22/6/20.
He did not claim UC until 10/3/20.
He has student loan and grant totalling £12,628 for this academic year.

UC have simply divided £12628 by 12 and said that this is his monthly income - am I right in thinking that this is incorrect? and that they should be deducting £110 pcm as well?
As the claim was only made on 10th March, should his student income only be taken into account for the 3 APs ending 9/6/20 as during the most recent AP the course had ended?

My query really is how should they be calculating his student income, is it over 12 months? or less if his course for instance started in Oct and ends in June?
Am I missing something?

Grateful for any pointers!


i think some stuff has been covered so i may repeat (sorry)

UC are wrong (shock horror)

the student loan (which seems high for the loan is there any grants in there that could be disregarded?) should be divided over how many MAP there are in the academic year.

so say their MAP runs the 9th - 8th of each month

if their final year started 10th october 2019 and ended 22 June 2020
this would mean the student finance is taken over 8 MAP (oct-Nov/nov-dec/dec-jan/jan-feb/feb-mar/mar-apri/april-may/may-june)

the MAP June-July is not counted as this is disregarded due to the last week of the course finishing in this period

so the £12628/8 = 1578.50p/m

you then have the £110p/m disregard

1578.50 - 110 = 1468.50

this £1468.50 is the monthly amount that should be taken into account for income and minused off the UC amount - this would probably mean no entitlement to UC but that depends on their maximum entitlement for UC


i would check that the figure of £12628 is purely loan and not including any grants which can be disregarded - i usually see maintenance loans of around £10000 and not £12000 but that could be to do with location - we’re slightly cheaper up north for accommodation etc.

just seen the amount is for a loan and grant if it is a parent learning grant this should be disregarded

[ Edited: 31 Jul 2020 at 10:12 am by VRW ]
Charlotte R
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WRAMAS - Bristol City Council

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Thanks for all the guidance everyone, that is really helpful.

So, really I need to find out what the grant is for so that I can see whether that can be disregarded? 

I should have mentioned that the student has a wife with no recourse and 2 children (I am not sure when they joined him in the UK) - so I guess if the grant is partly paid for their maintenance then it is taken into account as income for UC but if it was only calculated on his needs it’s fully disregarded?

VRW
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Charlotte R - 04 August 2020 11:18 AM

Thanks for all the guidance everyone, that is really helpful.

So, really I need to find out what the grant is for so that I can see whether that can be disregarded? 

I should have mentioned that the student has a wife with no recourse and 2 children (I am not sure when they joined him in the UK) - so I guess if the grant is partly paid for their maintenance then it is taken into account as income for UC but if it was only calculated on his needs it’s fully disregarded?


yes that right you need to check the grant to see if its disregarded

but weirdly enough ive just had the same issue with UC and one of my tenants she will now owe them over £6k because of their cock up - the MP for her area is useless and doesnt care

Benny Fitzpatrick
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Slightly off topic, but has anyone noticed that Students are now not wholly exempt from Council Tax even when living away from home?

Ianb
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Benny Fitzpatrick - 04 August 2020 01:07 PM

Slightly off topic, but has anyone noticed that Students are now not wholly exempt from Council Tax even when living away from home?

Where are you getting that from - it’s news to me. Surely a student is a disregarded person so cannot be liable. Obviously if they live with non students there will be liability for somebody to pay and if there are two non students then full council tax will be payable (assuming another exemption/disregard doesn’t apply).

Benny Fitzpatrick
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Sorry. My mistake, it’s non-dep deductions during the holidays…..

“Under UC, rules appear to be different to legacy benefits in that exemption applies for only 6 months, after which U/O charge is applicable. ( In addition, students over 21 years old are expected to pay a £15/week NDD during holidays.)

” If you have an adult child who is a student and their main residence is your home, their bedroom is not considered to be ‘spare’ as long as they don’t go more than 52 weeks without returning home. (However, under Universal Credit this will be for six months. Also full-time students will not be exempt from the ‘Housing Cost Contribution’, under Universal Credit which is payable at £15 per week for each non-dependant adult over 21).”

CPAG pp101-103 confirms no exemption for students.

Charlotte R
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VRW - 04 August 2020 01:01 PM
Charlotte R - 04 August 2020 11:18 AM

Thanks for all the guidance everyone, that is really helpful.

So, really I need to find out what the grant is for so that I can see whether that can be disregarded? 

I should have mentioned that the student has a wife with no recourse and 2 children (I am not sure when they joined him in the UK) - so I guess if the grant is partly paid for their maintenance then it is taken into account as income for UC but if it was only calculated on his needs it’s fully disregarded?


yes that right you need to check the grant to see if its disregarded

but weirdly enough ive just had the same issue with UC and one of my tenants she will now owe them over £6k because of their cock up - the MP for her area is useless and doesnt care

The client in my case has been paid full UC from March too - so no doubt he will have a large overpayment….

VRW
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Charlotte R - 05 August 2020 10:25 AM
VRW - 04 August 2020 01:01 PM
Charlotte R - 04 August 2020 11:18 AM

Thanks for all the guidance everyone, that is really helpful.

So, really I need to find out what the grant is for so that I can see whether that can be disregarded? 

I should have mentioned that the student has a wife with no recourse and 2 children (I am not sure when they joined him in the UK) - so I guess if the grant is partly paid for their maintenance then it is taken into account as income for UC but if it was only calculated on his needs it’s fully disregarded?


yes that right you need to check the grant to see if its disregarded

but weirdly enough ive just had the same issue with UC and one of my tenants she will now owe them over £6k because of their cock up - the MP for her area is useless and doesnt care

The client in my case has been paid full UC from March too - so no doubt he will have a large overpayment….

mines been paid full UC since september until march when they realised they were overpaying but still didnt work out the student finance properly

i think this is what happens when you move a lot of untrain benefit processors on UC - but they dont care as theyll get the money back regardless

ive told my tenant once she receives her payment in September to close her UC claim down as no doubt they mess up her finance again.