The Student Room Group

Independent status questions

Hello

I rang student finance today and what an awful experience! I even rang back and spoke to someone else who was just as confusing as the first person. I am struggling to work out what financial support and loans I will be able to access next year.

Anyway, hopefully someone can answer these questions for me..

I am 23 years old and if all goes well will be starting a university course in Sept 2016. I still live at home with household income excluding mine at around £14k. I have worked full time since leaving education at 17 so will be classed as an independent student.

They have told me I will need to provide three year's worth of P60s and I will then be income assessed. They told me I could send in P60s from any year. I didn't understand this as surely it would be your last three years if this is how it worked? I can't see anything on the internet describing a process where they assess your income for either any previous three years or the last three years.

What I am particularly stressed about is it seems you are not assessed on the current tax year but the one before the current.

IE, for 2016 entry they will look at financial year 14-15 for which I earned around £32k which is over the maximum allowed to receive any financial support. The year before I earned significantly more than this so am worried about sending in the last three years worth of P60s.

For the current tax year, I expect to earn in the region of £15k due to being unable to work full time from next month until April. Can anyone tell me what the limit is to receive the maximum amount of maintenance loans as I could keep my income under that if it makes a difference...?

Is there any other single students who earned a reasonable salary and then dropped to nothing once at university? Can you let me know how your application was assessed? I know there will be no grants next year but my understanding of the main change is that grants will be converted to loans and am therefore assuming not much else will change significantly.

In a nut shell, can anyone tell me I am mistaken in thinking there is a chance I won't qualify for any maintenance support?

Thanks
Original post by mizzip
Hello

I rang student finance today and what an awful experience! I even rang back and spoke to someone else who was just as confusing as the first person. I am struggling to work out what financial support and loans I will be able to access next year.

Anyway, hopefully someone can answer these questions for me..

I am 23 years old and if all goes well will be starting a university course in Sept 2016. I still live at home with household income excluding mine at around £14k. I have worked full time since leaving education at 17 so will be classed as an independent student.

They have told me I will need to provide three year's worth of P60s and I will then be income assessed. They told me I could send in P60s from any year. I didn't understand this as surely it would be your last three years if this is how it worked? I can't see anything on the internet describing a process where they assess your income for either any previous three years or the last three years.

What I am particularly stressed about is it seems you are not assessed on the current tax year but the one before the current.

IE, for 2016 entry they will look at financial year 14-15 for which I earned around £32k which is over the maximum allowed to receive any financial support. The year before I earned significantly more than this so am worried about sending in the last three years worth of P60s.

For the current tax year, I expect to earn in the region of £15k due to being unable to work full time from next month until April. Can anyone tell me what the limit is to receive the maximum amount of maintenance loans as I could keep my income under that if it makes a difference...?

Is there any other single students who earned a reasonable salary and then dropped to nothing once at university? Can you let me know how your application was assessed? I know there will be no grants next year but my understanding of the main change is that grants will be converted to loans and am therefore assuming not much else will change significantly.

In a nut shell, can anyone tell me I am mistaken in thinking there is a chance I won't qualify for any maintenance support?

Thanks


Two misconceptions here:
1) £32k is not over the maximum allowed to recieve any financial support. Anyone can get some financial support.
2) As far as I understand it if you aren't working when you do your degree then your income won't be assessed, however if you have a partner theirs will be
2)
Original post by mizzip
Hello

I rang student finance today and what an awful experience! I even rang back and spoke to someone else who was just as confusing as the first person. I am struggling to work out what financial support and loans I will be able to access next year.

Anyway, hopefully someone can answer these questions for me..

I am 23 years old and if all goes well will be starting a university course in Sept 2016. I still live at home with household income excluding mine at around £14k. I have worked full time since leaving education at 17 so will be classed as an independent student.

They have told me I will need to provide three year's worth of P60s and I will then be income assessed. They told me I could send in P60s from any year. I didn't understand this as surely it would be your last three years if this is how it worked? I can't see anything on the internet describing a process where they assess your income for either any previous three years or the last three years.

What I am particularly stressed about is it seems you are not assessed on the current tax year but the one before the current.

IE, for 2016 entry they will look at financial year 14-15 for which I earned around £32k which is over the maximum allowed to receive any financial support. The year before I earned significantly more than this so am worried about sending in the last three years worth of P60s.

For the current tax year, I expect to earn in the region of £15k due to being unable to work full time from next month until April. Can anyone tell me what the limit is to receive the maximum amount of maintenance loans as I could keep my income under that if it makes a difference...?

Is there any other single students who earned a reasonable salary and then dropped to nothing once at university? Can you let me know how your application was assessed? I know there will be no grants next year but my understanding of the main change is that grants will be converted to loans and am therefore assuming not much else will change significantly.

In a nut shell, can anyone tell me I am mistaken in thinking there is a chance I won't qualify for any maintenance support?

Thanks


If you are an independent student, or even if you are not an independent student, your own income is not taken into account, unless you are applying for supplementary grants (which you aren't). Only a partner's would be. If you have a partner, it will go by their earnings for the previous tax year. If you are granted independent status, and you are single, and are not claiming supplementary grants, there is no income assessment as such - you simply receive the maximum entitlement of maintenance loan/grant.

The three years worth of P60s do not form part of an income assessment - they are simply to prove that you have been self-supporting for three years. The reason they can be from any three years is that they do not need to be consecutive (indeed, there have been cases where it has come down to sending in individual payslips).

If for some reason your independent status is not granted, from your description of your parental income it seems like you will be eligible for maximum entitlement in any case.
The amount you receive does not depend on your income. If you're giving up full time work, you'll receive pretty much all of the support available. Eg. I received just over £7500 each year.


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Reply 4
Hello all,

Thank you for the reassuring replies. I did think it seems unfair that you would be income assessed as an independent student as obviously you wouldn't be earning whilst studying. The car crash calls with SFE earlier on had me worried.. Much clearer and concise info provided here!

They advised me I would be income assessed for the previous tax year, ie 14-15, and just kept repeating I would need to send in proof of being an independent student... Very stressful and I'm ages away from even applying.

This PDF states on page 30 that a single student with no children cannot earn over £28,065 and qualify for financial support. After considering your replies, I guess that means whilst studying.

http://www.sfengland.slc.co.uk/media/864989/sfe_how_paid_assessed_guide_1516_d.pdf

Thanks again.
Reply 5
Just to potentially muddy the waters (sorry!) I don't think you *have* to be assessed as independent under the age of 25 unless you want to be. You could just apply as a dependent student and be assessed on your parents' household income.
Original post by Klix88
Just to potentially muddy the waters (sorry!) I don't think you *have* to be assessed as independent under the age of 25 unless you want to be. You could just apply as a dependent student and be assessed on your parents' household income.


Yes that's very true, the application system looks at date of birth first, and if someone is going to be over 25 at the start of the academic year the application automatically switches to independent status, and if they're under 25 it only switches to independent status if this is specifically claimed with evidence.
Original post by mizzip
Hello all,

Thank you for the reassuring replies. I did think it seems unfair that you would be income assessed as an independent student as obviously you wouldn't be earning whilst studying. The car crash calls with SFE earlier on had me worried.. Much clearer and concise info provided here!

They advised me I would be income assessed for the previous tax year, ie 14-15, and just kept repeating I would need to send in proof of being an independent student... Very stressful and I'm ages away from even applying.

This PDF states on page 30 that a single student with no children cannot earn over £28,065 and qualify for financial support. After considering your replies, I guess that means whilst studying.

http://www.sfengland.slc.co.uk/media/864989/sfe_how_paid_assessed_guide_1516_d.pdf

Thanks again.


thats for part time students
Reply 8
Thank you for all of the responses. I am a lot clearer now :smile:

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