My point is It’s assumed that my husband and I are a joint income (though he has no financial responsibility towards my children and does NOT support me/them financially). There’s no joint about it. I may be married but essentially it’s MY income that my children and I live off. So ONE income. The other household is a single person so it is assumed that they have less income coming into the house hold. It’s not. It is equivalent to mine. But in addition , husband is providing laptops, clothing, allowances etc etc (which I have no issue with as it’s his responsibility to do so). But what that actually means in reality is that the students n the single household are able to access a higher value maintenance loan (more) than the students in the so called joint household ....even though those students only have mums single income for things like laptops, travel costs, food, living expenses. No one is claiming anything they shouldn’t. All info is correct (technically). But the system incorrectly assumes that a step parent shares financial responsibility for step children. This assumption is often incorrect. Financially penalising those students.The fact that this even needs to be explained to this degree shows that the system does not recognise those students individual circumstances.