Muslim claimants and student loans

One of my clients is a Muslim student (married, one child) who does not wish to take the student loan. If it is treated as notional income, then this may take her husband over the rate of JSA and Housing Benefit.  Any comments?

This was considered in CH/4429/2006.  The claimant relied on a Human Rights argument, but crucially the case predated the clearance of the Stec/Reynolds/RJM logjam and he was unable to engage A1P1 (possessions).  That left him with Article 9 (manifestation of religious beliefs) but as the Commissioner observed no-one was stopping him from doing that, the problem was that he was indeed absolutely observing his religious beliefs and suffering financial disadvantage as a result.

A case like that might stand a better chance under A1P1 these days.  However, there will still be obstacles for the claimant to overcome:

- she will need to submit evidence that she has been unable to secure a sharia compliant financial product in place of a student loan.  In CH/4429/2006 the Commissioner seemed to think there was a market in such products as there certainly is for mortgages

- she will need to propose a remedy that is available to the Tribunal and that will achieve a result for her.  There is a possibility I suppose of “reading out” HB Reg 64(3)(b), but I think she will be setting herself a very high bar in terms of justification because she will be attacking a policy

Are you aware of any further case law or other developments on this particular point of issue? I have a case on all fours with the case raised by AlanRAISE in this thread (23/10/2013). First-tier Tribunal hearing on 23/9/15, consultation with client tomorrow (18/9/15).

My inclination is that, following CH/4429/2006 there’s probably no viable case to argue.  But if there is any further material that might be relevant, I’d be very grateful to hear about it.

Many thanks