Students and HB

Forgive me if this has been raised before but I find students and HB confusing.

I have a client who self financed a fulltime university degree ( foundation course in computing) for 2 years. Because she did not pass all of it she decided she wanted to stop studying and she has not attended the course or paid any fees since September 2011. she has been working part time, and in April this year divorced from her husband. So she applied for HB at that time. HB will only pay from the 9th July after the course officially ends.

Last year he did enquire about completing a HND course, but her course director advised her to continue with her foundation cerificate instead of the HND. she agreed to this but did not continue

The course director ina letter states that “she has not been equired to attend from September 2011,“and the remaining module that she needs to complete just has to be submitted by early September.

I know there are rules arond definition of full time courses, and that students may have special reasons to suspend a course such as medical needs, but my client does not have this. Does anyone think there is an argument that she is no longer a student or would the univeristy have to explicitly state this? Even if they say she is no longer a student will HB still consider her full time?

Any advice will be appreciated, or point me in the right direction where I can look it up

I think she will only get HB if she abandoned the course. Did she tell the university (in writing) that she had abandoned the course, or did she simply stop attending?  The letter from the University seems to imply that she still is a student of the college on the same course, as she was not required to attend but simply complete the module by early Sept 2012.  I think she will need evidence from the University to show that she discontinued her study in Sept 2011.

I believe she just stopped attending. I agree I think the university will need to give her more information about this. The client is to let me know hopefully later after seeing the administrators again.

thanks for your response

Whether she abandoned the course is a question of fact.  So, in my view, all relevant factors need to be considered in the round and a broad judgement made.  Each factor is not a hurdle for the claimant to consider.  So, relevant factors are:

•  What was her intention?
•  What was the University’s understanding?
•  What did she tell others?
•  Did her funding stop?
•  Did her working hours clash with her course hours that made course attendance impossible?
•  Did she continue to use or attend any of the University’s facilities?
•  Did she move out of student accommodation?
 
This list is illustrative not exhaustive and no single one should be fatal.

Thanks again, I am awaiting the client to get back to me and will raise these points with her