Is there a cash sum bursary if your parents are divorced?

Garbage!

I know that your student finance is due to which ever parent you live with if they aren't together but I've also heard from some university students about a bursary that you get additionally from the government/some place that's about £1,000 cash if your a student with divorced parents...

Can someone correct me?

Possibly a misunderstanding.

Students from low income homes often qualify for a bursary from their university. For example, if you're living with a single divorced parent who does not have a live-in partner, then your household income may be low enough to qualify for such a bursary if your university offers one.

When applying for Student Finance, you need to check the box which agrees to them sharing your financial information with your university. This way, if your household income is low enough, the university will automatically give you the bursary.

For example, my current uni offers a non-repayable Maintenance Bursary to undergrads with a household income of less than £25,000 as long as they make it their Firm/First Choice on UCAS. This is worth £2000 in the first year, and £1000 in the second and third years.

Check your prospective uni's website to see if they offer something similar.

There's no extra money specifically for having divorced parents (more's the pity - my parents are divorced too).

However, if your parents are divorced then your household income will be based on the parent that you live with and any live in partner.

Now, if your parent is single, or has a partner on a low income, it may be entirely correct to say that if your parents weren't divorced you would have got a grand less. But you're not getting extra money because your parents are divorced per se.

Thanks for clearing that up! I just spoke to the people who has friends who said that they had received that money and they said that, when applying to student finance, their student finance receipt has a mark on it giving them £1,000 due to their parents being divorced. This has completely muddled me! But from what you two have said, with common sense I'm going to believe you and just assume that if any money comes in otherwise that it's a lucky bonus

To be honestt, I think your friend is mistaken. There's no extra money specifically for having divorced parents, and it would be politically disastrous for the government to start effectively paying people to divorce (especially when they give tax breaks to encourage marriage!)

Haha! Thanks I'm glad I won't feel like I've been cheated the grand whenever my student finance comes around

That's quite alright

If there was an extra grand for having divorced parents, I'd want to know where my extra grand was too!

So there are no bursaries for a single-parent household? My parents were never married and I have lived with my mother and sister since birth; although her income is fairly high so that I'm not eligible for any bursaries due to household income, would the fact that she is a single parent and juggling mortgage, financing my sister etc come into consideration for anything?

Nope, it's all based on household income, and if you finance is reduced as a result of your mum being on a good salary, then it is expected that she will make up the difference.

To be fair, it costs less to keep one adult and two kids on one salary of £50k than it does to keep two adults and two kids on two £25k salaries.

You should, however, take into consideration that you going away to uni will reduce some outgoings, because you won't be in the home e.g. food, hot water, electricity, pocket money. If you're on minimum student finance, then it would suggest that your mum is really very well paid and should be able to afford to subsidise you at uni. If she can't, then she's living beyond her means and she shouldn't expect the taxpayer to subsidise that.

Have you run the Student Finance Calculator? That will tell you about the government assistance you're eligible for. Make sure you also double check your uni's website with regards to bursaries, because eligibility does vary between unis and it won't be listed as part of the calculator.

Her salary is 42k (including London living), but at a mortgage rate of 1k/month, effectively 30k annually. And I wouldn't be able to comment on your hypothetical scenario, given that my household income is not nearly 50k. I will find out if I can get support; while you may call it 'living beyond her means' I call it providing for her family. I was merely asking if anyone knew whether unis offered financial support for those from a single parent household eg. bursaries as I was on a bursary throughout my secondary schooling for this same reason. Might I add that you could try phrasing things in a less abrasive way.

£50k was an example figure, plucked from thin air, to make a point.

After tax she's on £31,502 per year. After mortgage that's £19,502. That's quite a lot of money - it's substantially more than my household income (single mother, one child) has ever been even before tax and housing costs. Unless she has some major unavoidable and unusual outgoing that has yet to be mentioned, she can afford to subsidise your living costs.

I've seen far too many parents, both here and elsewhere, who seem to think that they can't afford to subsidise their student offspring, despite the fact that they earn significant sums, evidently choose to have a hefty mortgage (i.e. their house is not what I would call modest) and regularly go away on foreign holidays (and / or have too many children). This is what I mean by living beyond their means, and expecting the taxpayer to subsidise it.

I'm still yet to work out why anyone thinks that when there are two students with equal household income, one might be considered to be more in need of a bursary because their parents are divorced

To be honestt, I think your friend is mistaken. There's no extra money specifically for having divorced parents, and it would be politically disastrous for the government to start effectively paying people to divorce (especially when they give tax breaks to encourage marriage!)

Ohh, actually I wanted to ask about this! What is this married tax break thing?

Frankly your whole post was patronising and I can't waste my time arguing. Your final point however does not apply to me, my parents are not divorced, I have never had any financial support from my father. My mother has raised both myself and my sister as a single mother and she is paying a mortgage for a house, not at all immodest and still to be decorated, seeing as we moved here two years ago after living in a council flat for my whole life prior. Do you think you have the right to comment on people's lifestyles sat behind a computer screen with no knowledge of their circumstances? I wouldn't have been on a school bursary if I could afford lavish holidays abroad, let alone one every year. Of course my mother will help me with costs, as much as she can. However, trust me, I know there are ways out there that people in my situation can get support. I wanted helpful advice from people still in university and thus with knowledge of this. I did not, however, anticipate a grown woman to respond, so unhelpfully and unnecessarily rude. Bitterness is not a nice trait.