Maintenance loan confusion?

So yesterday I started applying for my first year student finance. When I got to the maintenance loan part, it said

"You can apply for a Maintenance Loan to help with your living costs. You can get up to £3731, which doesn't depend on your household income and has to be paid back."

But when I used the student finance calculator, it said based on my information that I am entitled to £4789 maintenance loan a year. So why is there a difference and which one is right?

Reply 1

cheshiremum

Hmm I think the 3731 figure is for outside London - so am tempted to think you told the calculator you are goign to be studying in London?

Reply 2

cheshiremum

or - you put in a household income figure that means you can borrow more than the 3731 - at a certain income point, the amount you can borrow decreases, and decreases - the 3731 is what you get if your household income is above the threshold (ie doesn't depend on your household income), below the threshold (about 60k?) you can borrow more.

Reply 3

weevilface

I definitely didn't say that I was studying in London, I checked all the information. My household income is definitely lower than £60k a year but I don't see why they would imply £3731 is the maximum you can borrow at all given that most people do not have that kind of yearly household income.

Thanks for replying though, I didn't want to continue with my application if continuing somehow meant that I would only get a maximum loan of £3731 when I absolutely can't live on that.

Reply 4

weevilface

Also I'm on a gap year working to save up money. Do I have to add that to household income? Because if I do I'll get less loan and the whole point of the gap year was to save money to add to the loan because I need it to live?

Reply 5

Tiger Rag

Original post by weevilface

You don't need to add that to the household income.

£60k is when you reach the point at which you only get the non-income assessed amount of loan.

Reply 6

cheshiremum

Money you have saved is savings, capital not income, so when it asks about income do not include it.

The wording is not clear is it? the 3731 is only the maximum if you don't tell them about household income. I think its about 65% of the actual maximum loan. As household income goes up from about 25k the grant element goes down, and the loan you can have goes up, then at about 40something the grant drops to 0, the loan still increases a little bit, then the loan starts dropping down to the 3731.

But the upshot is - the calculator is giving you a true indication of what you might get.

Reply 7

Klix88

Original post by weevilface

So why is there a difference and which one is right?

Everyone is automatically entitled to £3731.

The extra above that is based on your household income - the more your parents earn, the less above that £3731 you'll get.

As long as you've entered the correct household income into the SF calculator, then you should get £4789 (the basic £3731 plus £1058 based on your household income).

Reply 8

weevilface

Thanks for the clarification, everyone! I didn't want to continue juuuuust in case I was committing myself to less than I'm entitled to/can afford! :smile: