The Student Room Group

Help! Income assessed finance when both parents live abroad

Hi! I am currently in my 2nd year of a 4 year course and had previously received non-income assessed finance, but my loan does not stretch very far at all, and my mum cannot afford to support me.

Its quite a long story but the condensed version is that my mum is a UK/Nigerian dual citizen who was born and raised in England, she moved to Nigeria at 18 and married my dad. They split up in 2001 (i am unsure if she actually has divorce papers as this happened in Nigeria) and she and I moved back to England. We lived together until 2004, but because she lost her job and was unemployed for a long while, she moved back to Nigeria and I moved in with my Aunt (she does not support me) and later to boarding school.

So what will I/she need to provide to show that we have both been estranged from my dad for 14 years and that she does not earn enough to support me? (She earns in Nigerian Naira). When she lived/worked in England she had her NI number (it will hopefully show that she wasnt earning very much here) and we lived in a council house (She has misplaced almost all those bills though).
Original post by AlexU
Hi! I am currently in my 2nd year of a 4 year course and had previously received non-income assessed finance, but my loan does not stretch very far at all, and my mum cannot afford to support me.

Its quite a long story but the condensed version is that my mum is a UK/Nigerian dual citizen who was born and raised in England, she moved to Nigeria at 18 and married my dad. They split up in 2001 (i am unsure if she actually has divorce papers as this happened in Nigeria) and she and I moved back to England. We lived together until 2004, but because she lost her job and was unemployed for a long while, she moved back to Nigeria and I moved in with my Aunt (she does not support me) and later to boarding school.

So what will I/she need to provide to show that we have both been estranged from my dad for 14 years and that she does not earn enough to support me? (She earns in Nigerian Naira). When she lived/worked in England she had her NI number (it will hopefully show that she wasnt earning very much here) and we lived in a council house (She has misplaced almost all those bills though).


Have you lived with either parent at all, including school holidays in the last three years before uni? If you haven't, you'd probably be best off getting assessed as an independent student- this can be difficult to prove, so you'd be best off speaking to SFE about what they would require in order to prove this.

However, if you've been spending holidays in Nigeria with your mother, you may end up being considered non-resident in the UK- as residency for the purposes of education (i.e. boarding school) doesn't count in terms of entitlement for student finance. As such, you might be taking a risk if you claimed your mother's household was your household.

On the upside, you don't need to prove estrangement from your other parent- it's household income only that's taken into account. If SFE will agree to assess you based on your mother's income, then she would need to provide some sort of proof of earnings- does she have any sort of documentation such as current bank statements or wage slips? Does she pay tax in Nigeria?

Who was paying for your boarding school? This would have involved not insubstantial fees, so surely they could provide some support at uni too?
Reply 2
Hi! Thanks for replying! No, holidays were spent here in England with Aunt, my mum would come over at Christmastime and for a few weeks in the summer. I haven't been to Nigeria in about 9 years. Yeah Im gonna ring them up and have a talk with them, I kinda just wanted to have a rough idea of what i would need. Do you have a rough idea of what I would need to claim to be assessed as an independent student?

My aunt mostly supported me, but I worked from 15-18, so I wasn't entirely dependant on her. My mum also sent her funds for my upkeep, but she has 3 kids of her own and can no longer afford to support me at all. I live full-time in my uni town. Last year I worked over the summer so was able to survive at uni, but I have a mostly unpaid internship throughout this summer so the non-income assessed grant wont stretch.

Yes, she has wage slips and she does pay tax. I can get her to scan/fax them. Will those be suitable?

I went to a state grammar school, so tuition was free and most of my boarding fees paid with grants/scholarships.

Thank you again for your help!
It sounds as though your income assessment would be done with your aunts income and not your mum as that's who you love with and also your guardian. Best bet would be to call sfe for clarification


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Original post by Nubian Rapunzel
It sounds as though your income assessment would be done with your aunts income and not your mum as that's who you love with and also your guardian. Best bet would be to call sfe for clarification


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Student finance never look at the income of anyone other than an applicants parents. If they don't have parents or are estranged from them the applicant is classified as independent.
Original post by jelly1000
Student finance never look at the income of anyone other than an applicants parents. If they don't have parents or are estranged from them the applicant is classified as independent.


not true. My friend is assessed on his grandma. His mum is alive and well but he has lived with his gran for the last 18 months

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