Eligible for financial support award but not sure if I should accept it

Poll

Accept the award??

Hi there I have a bit of a moral dilemma concerning a financial support award. :ssaw:

Basically I've been e-mailed by my university and they have told me that i'm eligible for a £3000 financial support award because my household income is below £40,000. However my household income is only low because my parents are separated and I live with the lowest earner, however if both of my parents incomes were added together it would be a fair amount above the £40,000 threshold. I'm aware that these support awards are designed to help people from poorer backgrounds and I kind of feel that if I accepted the award I would be abusing the system as although i'm not rich my parents have enough to support me throughout university. But on the other hand it would seem a waste to turn down the award and the money would definitely be useful. The system is clearly not fair but it's just the way they have decided to allocate the awards (whichever way they decided to allocate there would be winners and losers) maybe I should just count myself lucky and take the money?

What do you think I should do? Accept the money and live with the guilt or decline it and have a clear conscience? :confused:

Reply 1

M1011

Definitely take the money. It's not doing anyone else any harm.

If you're feeling guilty you can donate it to charity or something. Once you see what you actually get for your 9k per year, you won't begrudge taking a few thousand off the university.

Reply 2

punani

Accept the money and donate it to your University's fund for encouraging students from poorer backgrounds to attend university.

Reply 3

Mouth

I'd say take the money too. It's not the government grant at least, it's from the university itself. It's not like you taking the money will actually prevent anybody else from getting theirs.

Reply 4

Klix88

I'd take it. It's not like if you take it, someone else doesn't get it. If you don't take it, all that happens is that the money will just be absorbed back into a budget calculation somewhere.

If you have it, you can see how far your money goes. If you end up not needing it, you can always use it to do some good.

Reply 5

SpicyStrawberry

Take it and put it into savings if you don't need it right now. You're not abusing the system as the uni has all the facts and still say you are eligible for it, so don't feel bad for accepting it! If you don't it will just get absorbed, as any students that are eligible will receive the same support anyway.