Student Income and UC - Maintenance Grant

Hi

I have a client who is Student studying a Masters in Social Work and is receiving a NHS Bursary which pays £4000 towards her tuition fees, however the fees are £8000.

She currently receives a maintenance grant of £2721 every 3 months with £1500 being taken out immediately for tuition fees. UC are taking into account the whole amount of £2721 which means that she is only being left with £73 UC payment a month along with £403 left of her maintenance grant.

Shes a single parent and also gets Parental Allowance and Student Travel Allowance which is disregarded by UC but obviously she is still struggling.

She’s sent invoices for the payment of tuition fees and has her Professor sending them a letter to confirm what I have just said.

Is there anything we can do? I believe other students on her course with same circumstances have successfully appealed the decision so does give me some hope!

Thanks

Adam

Hi Adam,

this case is about a student loan not a bursary but it may be relevant.  Unfortunately I don’t think it helps your client.

Secretary of State for Work and Pensions v AD (UC): [2023] UKUT 272 (AAC)

I’m not sure if this link will work or not -
https://www.gov.uk/administrative-appeals-tribunal-decisions/secretary-of-state-for-work-and-pensions-v-ad-uc-2023-ukut-272-aac

This was the subject of a recent UT decision in SSWP v AD (UC) [2023] UKUT 272 (AAC). In short, the fact that your client might be spending the maintenance grant on tuition fees is irrelevant and the whole sum is taken into account regardless.

That is not to say that the DWP will necessarily have calculated the amounts correctly. It also may be the case that there are further funding resources available to her which she might benefit from advice from a student support service on.

I think that the last two posts must be right. Although reg.70(a) of the UC Regs requires the disregard from the amount of a grant of a payment “intended to meet tuition fees or examination fees”, the intention must, to provide an objective rule, be that of the grant-paying authority, not the student recipient. Then a maintenance grant (there’s a clue in the name) would not be intended to meet tuition fees unless there was something specific in its terms to say so. That seems unlikely when the bursary scheme has a separate provision for fees, but subject to the cap of £4,000 or so.

But I agree that the details of the current UC calculation need careful scrutiny. For instance, if the whole of the £2721 (presumably per term) maintenance grant is actually being counted as income, that on the face of it is contrary to the requirement in step 4 of reg.71to deduct £110 from student income in each AP.