PhD stipend question

POer year.

It's quite easy to live on really, Universal credit + housing benefit pays £8000 per year and people survive, that's double it.

Ok, so this might be a dumb question but I can't find a definitive answer anywhere.

I am currently considering applying for a PhD studentship with this info:

The award pays full maintenance for UK citizens and residents only. The National Minimum Doctoral Stipend for 2020/21 is £15,285, *plus a CDP maintenance payment of £600/year and an allowance of £1000/year.

Is this for the duration of the 3 years or do I get that amount of money yearly? I suspect it's the latter but how do people survive?

Remember that this is a tax-free amount, so a yearly amount of nearly £17K tax-free is equivalent to a taxable salary of more than £20K.

A lot of working people would struggle to understand your incredulity of 'how can a single person survive on a salary of £20,000+ per annum'.

If it’s per year then it’s a decent amount to live on. I meant if it was for the three years it would be hard.

Ok, so this might be a dumb question but I can't find a definitive answer anywhere.

I am currently considering applying for a PhD studentship with this info:

The award pays full maintenance for UK citizens and residents only. The National Minimum Doctoral Stipend for 2020/21 is £15,285, *plus a CDP maintenance payment of £600/year and an allowance of £1000/year.

Is this for the duration of the 3 years or do I get that amount of money yearly? I suspect it's the latter but how do people survive?

Hi Just thought I'd comment I'm currently, a PhD student on a stipend, they took most of my stipend into account for Universal Credit and left me with £80.00 a month! As a single parent of 2 kids, this left £1300 a month to live on, which as a single person is very comfortable, but as a parent, it is a struggle particularly when it was a huge drop from £2100 when I did my full-time masters and job.
It is because they class it as 'unearned income' which is total rubbish as I work more now than ever! However, providing you're not applying for a 'Research Council stipend' you will be entitled to the postgraduate loan which is £25,700 a year ( although think it may have gone up). I didn't know this and have struggled for 7 months! But it has now been paid into my account, so might be worth considering! If you have a masters loan, you make the repayments with this so essentially it isn't really another loan.
Hope this helps and good luck

My experience of a PhD stipend 6 months, I get barely any universal credit it’s £80a month including the housing element despite having two dependents.
But I found out recently as long as the funding is not from a research council you can still get the doctoral loan, which is around £25700 across the four years.

Much more manageable! Good luck!

Hi Robyn, I'm starting my PhD this month but I've also been entitled to UC during my undergrad- do you have to call them up to let them know you're receiving your stipend because the online system for UC isn't set up to acknowledge a change in income that doesn't involve getting a job.

Hi Robyn,
You've given some very useful info there, thanks!
I'm a PhD student out of funding time, on UC and job searching while trying to finish off.
Ooops.
Anyway, the uni has a covid hardship grant type of thing going on, that I may get something from because of the lockdown disruption to research.
I'm curious how it worked the 2nd time for you, when the stipend was disregarded?
Don't know if I'll get anything, or how much if I do.
But if UC didn't count it as earnings that would quickly help put a dent in the old credit card / overdraft situation!
(Both maxxed out again lol)
(I can't get the postgrad loan coz I started too early, before it started.)
Take care, and hope yours is going smoother than mine has

As you haven't tagged this user and its 5 months since this was posted, there's a decent chance you won't get a reply

Thanks for replying QM! It's my 1st time on here and I don't know how to tag. I thought that it would tell previous people that there's a new reply to their discussion.

It probably will but if they aren't active on here they might not see it for ages. You can quote they rmessage to notify them or type @ followed by their username (similar to social media sites)