Student finance explained for parents by SLC

Student Money Week 2018

Got a question about your child’s student finance application? Our experts are here to help.

Neil is a Superuser from the Student Loans Company’s Contact Service Centre. Neil has worked in Student Finance England's contact centre department for over seven years and is experienced in answering all types of queries.

Please be aware all answers will be posted on Tuesday 13 February.

Reply 1

Trevels

3

I understand that to apply for a maintenance loan for student entry September 2018 proof of houshold income for the tax year 2015 to 2016 is used to calculate this which is some time ago. My income since July 2016 has significantly reduced due to retirement. How is this taken into account when calculating my daughter's loan entitlement?

Reply 2

Ariel Daly

Official Rep

Hello @Trevels

Eligible students are able to apply for a maintenance loan with or without including their parents income figures as there are two separate rates of maintenance loan available. The first rate of maintenance loan that is available is the non-income assessed rate which is available to all eligible students who indicate they wish to apply for it. The second rate is income assessed which is based on the students parents income if the student is under 25 and considered dependent on their parents.

If your daughter is applying for the income assessed rate of maintenance loan for her 2018/19 academic year application, and is under 25 and considered dependent on you, then this would be based on your (and your partners if applicable) income for the tax year 16/17 (April 2016-April 2017). Therefore in this case your reduced income due to your retirement would already be taken into account as July 2016 would fall within the tax year we would be assessing your daughters funding on.

I hope this helps.
Ariel.

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 3

aa bb

5

Dear SLC,

As part of the application process I understand as parents supporting our student financially. I need to provide household income details for year ending 16/17. As our household income has dropped somewhat from 16/17(over 15%) when will the current year assement form for year 17/18 be made available for completion by us and to be taken into account for support of our apllication form?

Can you also confirm how this form is made available and how do I advise SFE that my applicarion will be subject to this revised household income level?

Kind regards,

Sam.

Reply 4

Tiger2115

2

Hi, we sold our flat last year and paid Capital Gains Tax on the sale. This was my partner’s previous home but we now own a home together. When looking to see what is classed as income so we can support our children's applications, this seems to be a grey area. It does not look to be classed as Income, so we are unsure of if this should be put on the online form? Some research we have done said this does not need to be declared as its not income and we want to ensure we are completing the forms correctly. If it does need to be declared, if it’s not income, what should it be classed as? A SFE rep on the student room forum has said Capital Gains do not need to be added as its not classes as taxable income, we just want to confirm this is correct and we dont need to add on the application the gains from the sale?

Reply 5

Ariel Daly

Official Rep

Original post by Tiger2115

Hi, we sold our flat last year and paid Capital Gains Tax on the sale. This was my partner’s previous home but we now own a home together. When looking to see what is classed as income so we can support our children's applications, this seems to be a grey area. It does not look to be classed as Income, so we are unsure of if this should be put on the online form? Some research we have done said this does not need to be declared as its not income and we want to ensure we are completing the forms correctly. If it does need to be declared, if it’s not income, what should it be classed as? A SFE rep on the student room forum has said Capital Gains do not need to be added as its not classes as taxable income, we just want to confirm this is correct and we dont need to add on the application the gains from the sale?

Hello,

For the purposes of supporting your children's applications with household income figures Student Loans Company do not count capital gain (including profit from sale of property/land under capital gains) as taxable income, therefore this would not need to be included when you declare your household income on the form.

I hope this helps,
Ariel.

Reply 6

Tiger2115

2

Original post by Ariel Daly

Hello,

For the purposes of supporting your children's applications with household income figures Student Loans Company do not count capital gain (including profit from sale of property/land under capital gains) as taxable income, therefore this would not need to be included when you declare your household income on the form.

I hope this helps,
Ariel.

Thank you. And we dont need to put it under any other criteria? We just wanted to be sure we were completing the forms correctly and putting down everything we should be putting down.

Reply 7

Neil Simpson

Official Rep

Original post by aa bb

Dear SLC,

As part of the application process I understand as parents supporting our student financially. I need to provide household income details for year ending 16/17. As our household income has dropped somewhat from 16/17(over 15%) when will the current year assement form for year 17/18 be made available for completion by us and to be taken into account for support of our apllication form?

Can you also confirm how this form is made available and how do I advise SFE that my applicarion will be subject to this revised household income level?

Kind regards,

Sam.

Hello

If a student will be applying for means tested funding for the 18/19 Academic Year, as standard we would be looking at financial information for the 16/17 Tax year. To begin with, a student should apply to be means tested as normal on the 16/17 figures from sponsor(s). The income figures of the sponsor(s) will then be sent for a Verify Household Income (VHI) check.

If you believe your household income has dropped and you expect a 15% lower income in the 18/19 tax year, then a CYI form could be completed. The 18/19 CYI form can be used to estimate your income for the 18/19 tax year, and if accepted the assessment will change to use those figures.

Unfortunately we cannot use 17/18 tax year figures to assess an 18/19 application. It either has to be the normal 16/17 tax year or the estimated 18/19 tax year figures.

Once the 18/19 tax year has finished, we will later write out for another form and evidence to confirm the estimated figures.

The CYI 18/19 form will become available from April 2018 from the following site : https://www.gov.uk/student-finance-forms

I hope that answers your question

Regards

Neil

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 8

Ariel Daly

Official Rep

Original post by Tiger2115

Thank you. And we dont need to put it under any other criteria? We just wanted to be sure we were completing the forms correctly and putting down everything we should be putting down.