The Student Room Group

Split contribution help

I'm a triplet attending university along with my 2 siblings in September, We've received an award of £6018.00 maintenance loan each. My parental income is £47,000.

This is a paragraph from the 'Assessing Financial Entitlement 2016/17' document - (March 2016)

In relation to loans for living costs, where the same household income is used to assess the amount ofstatutory award for which two or more eligible students qualify, the household contribution figure must bedivided by the number of those eligible students before being deducted from the appropriate maximum loanrate for living costs (regulation 72(4) for 2008 cohort students, regulation 74(4) for 2009 cohort students and,regulation 76(4) for 2012 cohort students) and Schedule 4, paragraph 10 for 2016 cohort students.


Note it says that the contribution should be split from the number of eligible students which is 3.

I was sent a table from my University stating my assessed parental contribution for £47.000 = £486.

I work out our student maintenance loans to be:

£486(contribution) / 3(eligible students) = £162

£8,200 (Max Loan amount) - £162 = £8,030

Can someone please confirm I have got this right and am not getting it wrong. They even give an example on the same document 'Assessing Financial Entitlement 2016/17' .....



Example 2

Student A and Student B are both eligible 2016 cohort students who do not qualify for benefits under theStudent Support Regulations. Both qualify for the elsewhere rate of maintenance loan.

1 The applicable loan rate is £8,200 (maximum elsewhererate)

2 Assessed parental contribution is £2,017 at householdincome of £60,000 which split equally between the twostudents (£1,008 each).(please see 2016 cohort section for more detail on howthe assessed contribution is calculated for a 2016cohort)

3 Maximum amount of loan available per student is£8,200 - £1,008 = £7,192
(edited 7 years ago)

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Original post by gcombo001
I'm a triplet attending university along with my 2 siblings in September, We've received an award of £6018.00 maintenance loan each. My parental income is £47,000.

This is a paragraph from the 'Assessing Financial Entitlement 2016/17' document - (March 2016)

In relation to loans for living costs, where the same household income is used to assess the amount ofstatutory award for which two or more eligible students qualify, the household contribution figure must bedivided by the number of those eligible students before being deducted from the appropriate maximum loanrate for living costs (regulation 72(4) for 2008 cohort students, regulation 74(4) for 2009 cohort students and,regulation 76(4) for 2012 cohort students) and Schedule 4, paragraph 10 for 2016 cohort students.


Note it says that the contribution should be split from the number of eligible students which is 3.

I was sent a table from my University stating my assessed parental contribution for £47.000 = £486.

I work out our student maintenance loans to be:

£486(contribution) / 3(eligible students) = £162

£8,200 (Max Loan amount) - £162 = £8,030

Can someone please confirm I have got this right and am not getting it wrong. They even give an example on the same document 'Assessing Financial Entitlement 2016/17' .....



Example 2

Student A and Student B are both eligible 2016 cohort students who do not qualify for benefits under theStudent Support Regulations. Both qualify for the elsewhere rate of maintenance loan.

1 The applicable loan rate is £8,200 (maximum elsewhererate)

2 Assessed parental contribution is £2,017 at householdincome of £60,000 which split equally between the twostudents (£1,008 each).(please see 2016 cohort section for more detail on howthe assessed contribution is calculated for a 2016cohort)

3 Maximum amount of loan available per student is£8,200 - £1,008 = £7,192


@Mark Lee - SFE Official Adviser

Can you please look at this and check I haven't given any incorrect advice

See http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4016465&p=64133921#post64133921 as well - it appears as though the finance for all 3 siblings has been calculated as if the other siblings were living at home and not claiming finance (so the deduction for siblings has been made but not the division of household contributions)
(edited 7 years ago)
Reply 2
Original post by PQ
@Mark Lee - SFE Official Adviser

Can you please look at this and check I haven't given any incorrect advice

See http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4016465&p=64133921#post64133921 as well - it appears as though the finance for all 3 siblings has been calculated as if the other siblings were living at home and not claiming finance (so the deduction for siblings has been made but not the division of household contributions)


Thanks for linking Mark, hopefully he'll be able to confirm the issue.

Would you know roughly know how much more we'd expect to receive if they have made an error?
(edited 7 years ago)
Reply 3
Original post by PQ
@Mark Lee - SFE Official Adviser

Can you please look at this and check I haven't given any incorrect advice

See http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4016465&p=64133921#post64133921 as well - it appears as though the finance for all 3 siblings has been calculated as if the other siblings were living at home and not claiming finance (so the deduction for siblings has been made but not the division of household contributions)


How can I get him to see this, he's on-line but not answering any of my threads? I've already waited 1 week for him to answer, trying to get a reply before I submit an appeal!?
Original post by gcombo001
How can I get him to see this, he's on-line but not answering any of my threads? I've already waited 1 week for him to answer, trying to get a reply before I submit an appeal!?


Let's try tagging him in again :smile:

@Mark Lee - SFE Official Adviser - please help!
Hi Gcombo001

When there is more than one student from the same household both attending college or university we can apply for what is called a 'Split Contribution'. This is an allowance of £1130 which is deducted from the household income for each additional student. For example, if you have 2 children in Higher Education (HE) then a disregard of £1130 would be taken off the household income in total. In a household with two students and a household contribution of £500, this would be divided between the two students. Where students in the same household fall under different student finance regulations, their household contribution would be calculated according to the regulations which apply to their individual circumstances. The household contribution is then divided by the number of students in that household. However if you have 1 student and another child dependent (not in HE) we would apply a disregard of £1130.
Hope this helps

Thanks
Reply 6
Original post by Mark Lee - SFE Official Adviser
Hi Gcombo001

When there is more than one student from the same household both attending college or university we can apply for what is called a 'Split Contribution'. This is an allowance of £1130 which is deducted from the household income for each additional student. For example, if you have 2 children in Higher Education (HE) then a disregard of £1130 would be taken off the household income in total. In a household with two students and a household contribution of £500, this would be divided between the two students. Where students in the same household fall under different student finance regulations, their household contribution would be calculated according to the regulations which apply to their individual circumstances. The household contribution is then divided by the number of students in that household. However if you have 1 student and another child dependent (not in HE) we would apply a disregard of £1130.
Hope this helps

Thanks


I'm not too sure what this means, so the £6018.00 Is correct? @PQ


All 3 of us are attending, We're all outside of London, away from the parental home. Our parental income is exactly £46,687 (just confirmed with SFE over the phone)
(edited 7 years ago)
Reply 7
Original post by PQ
@Mark Lee - SFE Official Adviser

Can you please look at this and check I haven't given any incorrect advice

See http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4016465&p=64133921#post64133921 as well - it appears as though the finance for all 3 siblings has been calculated as if the other siblings were living at home and not claiming finance (so the deduction for siblings has been made but not the division of household contributions)


Hi,

Could you please! Help me. Can you please let me know what you think I'm entitled too? I still haven't sent of my appeal as I don't know what to say!

Cheers
Reply 8
Hi,
As the mother of triplet boys, who are all looking to apply to university starting in September 2017, I've been reading this thread with interest! Did you eventually manage to confirm whether or not your loan had been calculated correctly?
I'm completely confused about how the maintenance loans are calculated, given our situation with three students all likely to be away at university at the same time. I haven't found the Student Finance website to be very helpful, and when I've asked the student finance teams at the open days we've visited so far I've been given conflicting advice/information.
I don't really understand what is meant by the "split contribution". If it means that £2,260 of our household income is disregarded when working out the amount of loan each student is entitled to, then surely this is only of benefit if it results in the adjusted household income total falling into a lower bracket (which would then mean that the student is entitled to a higher loan).
What is an "assessed parental contribution"? Is it the difference between the maximum loan of £8,200 and the loan amount determined by the bracket into which the household income falls? I'm a bit confused about this - if this parental contribution were to be split across three students, does that mean that the amount of loan that each student receives would increase?
If you, or anyone else could clarify this, I would be really grateful!

Thanks
Reply 9
Original post by OXO99
Hi,
As the mother of triplet boys, who are all looking to apply to university starting in September 2017, I've been reading this thread with interest! Did you eventually manage to confirm whether or not your loan had been calculated correctly?
I'm completely confused about how the maintenance loans are calculated, given our situation with three students all likely to be away at university at the same time. I haven't found the Student Finance website to be very helpful, and when I've asked the student finance teams at the open days we've visited so far I've been given conflicting advice/information.
I don't really understand what is meant by the "split contribution". If it means that £2,260 of our household income is disregarded when working out the amount of loan each student is entitled to, then surely this is only of benefit if it results in the adjusted household income total falling into a lower bracket (which would then mean that the student is entitled to a higher loan).
What is an "assessed parental contribution"? Is it the difference between the maximum loan of £8,200 and the loan amount determined by the bracket into which the household income falls? I'm a bit confused about this - if this parental contribution were to be split across three students, does that mean that the amount of loan that each student receives would increase?
If you, or anyone else could clarify this, I would be really grateful!

Thanks


Hi,

We ended up appealing against the initial offer, hoping that we could at least find out exactly how they had calculated it. But no, all we got is a letter saying our appeal had been rejected, just simply that. But I don't know if you knew that you can appeal up to something like 4 times where it gets escalated to higher authority every time. So we're going to appeal again and am at least hoping for someone to explain how it was calculated because as you say we've received a lot of conflicting information, with student finance being no help what so ever.

It's really confusing because as you said as you speak to different people they all say different things but I was sent a document from my University which is an official document explaining how student finance is calculated and it gives examples of certain situations (none which we could 100% relate too due to us being triplets) it is called 'Assessing Financial Entitlement 2016/17' I would post the link here but It won't allow me to, so just google that and it should be the very first link. This is where they explain things like split contribution (PAGE 81).

"In relation to loans for living costs, where the same household income is used to assess the amount ofstatutory award for which two or more eligible students qualify, the household contribution figure must bedivided by the number of those eligible students before being deducted from the appropriate maximum loanrate for living costs"

This is a paragraph from that document stating how split contributions work. If you go to pages 37-40 on that document they give you details of how you work out your household contribution figure depending on how much you earn to whether your children are inside/outside London and staying at home or living away. So have a read of that you'll be able to work that out quite easily.

It then says it's divided by number of eligible students which in our cases is 3 and removed from appropriate maximum loan which is £8,200 outside London and £10,702 inside London (if your living away from home) otherwise it's just £6,904 max.

I mean this is how I'm convinced it works and I've had people tell me that our offer of £6018 has been incorrectly calculated and Student Finance are saying its correct.

The £2,260 disregard is what has been applied to us also and when I speak to student finance on the phone and ask them to explain whether or not split contribution has been applied they say 'yes' and go on to explain the disregard which is a completely different thing to split contribution. So it's all really confusing. On that 'Assessing Financial Entitlement 2016/17' document they give examples of the split contribution where the disregard is also added. Look on pages 92 on wards on that document. I hope you understand what I'm trying to say haha.

Assessed parental contribution is just another word for household contribution so they are the same thing. Household contribution is basically what they 'expect' parents to contribute depending on your income.

Hope this helps, we're going to appeal a second time with all these pages from that document and hopefully it will get us a bit further as the first time we literally wrote a letter with none of this stuff included. I'll let you know what happens, ask me if you want anything else :smile:
Reply 10
Original post by gcombo001
Hi,

We ended up appealing against the initial offer, hoping that we could at least find out exactly how they had calculated it. But no, all we got is a letter saying our appeal had been rejected, just simply that. But I don't know if you knew that you can appeal up to something like 4 times where it gets escalated to higher authority every time. So we're going to appeal again and am at least hoping for someone to explain how it was calculated because as you say we've received a lot of conflicting information, with student finance being no help what so ever.

It's really confusing because as you said as you speak to different people they all say different things but I was sent a document from my University which is an official document explaining how student finance is calculated and it gives examples of certain situations (none which we could 100% relate too due to us being triplets) it is called 'Assessing Financial Entitlement 2016/17' I would post the link here but It won't allow me to, so just google that and it should be the very first link. This is where they explain things like split contribution (PAGE 81).

"In relation to loans for living costs, where the same household income is used to assess the amount ofstatutory award for which two or more eligible students qualify, the household contribution figure must bedivided by the number of those eligible students before being deducted from the appropriate maximum loanrate for living costs"

This is a paragraph from that document stating how split contributions work. If you go to pages 37-40 on that document they give you details of how you work out your household contribution figure depending on how much you earn to whether your children are inside/outside London and staying at home or living away. So have a read of that you'll be able to work that out quite easily.

It then says it's divided by number of eligible students which in our cases is 3 and removed from appropriate maximum loan which is £8,200 outside London and £10,702 inside London (if your living away from home) otherwise it's just £6,904 max.

I mean this is how I'm convinced it works and I've had people tell me that our offer of £6018 has been incorrectly calculated and Student Finance are saying its correct.

The £2,260 disregard is what has been applied to us also and when I speak to student finance on the phone and ask them to explain whether or not split contribution has been applied they say 'yes' and go on to explain the disregard which is a completely different thing to split contribution. So it's all really confusing. On that 'Assessing Financial Entitlement 2016/17' document they give examples of the split contribution where the disregard is also added. Look on pages 92 on wards on that document. I hope you understand what I'm trying to say haha.

Assessed parental contribution is just another word for household contribution so they are the same thing. Household contribution is basically what they 'expect' parents to contribute depending on your income.

Hope this helps, we're going to appeal a second time with all these pages from that document and hopefully it will get us a bit further as the first time we literally wrote a letter with none of this stuff included. I'll let you know what happens, ask me if you want anything else :smile:


Thanks for that - it all sounds really complicated! At a time when you're busy studying for your A Levels, I bet you could do without all this extra hassle.

I've already done a bit of googling, and I've tried out the "Student Finance Calculator" on the GOV.UK website (which doesn't seem to take into account if there are siblings also at university). We were given a leaflet at one of the open days which grouped household income into bands, and gave a maximum loan amount for each band, with £8,200 being the most you could borrow. I don't know if this is exactly how it works in practice, or if it's calculated on a sliding scale with the amount of loan reducing for each extra £1 of income. If it's worked out simply using the "bands" of income, then the £1,310 disregard per student makes absolutely no difference in our case.

I'll have a look at the "Assessing Financial Entitlement" info you mentioned and see if I can get my head round it all. It would be really useful to have some idea now of how much my boys are likely to receive, so that we can start planning/saving.

Hope your next appeal goes better and that, at the very least, you are given an explanation of the calculation. Keep us posted as to how you get on.If I manage to find anything else out I'll let you know!
Reply 11
Original post by OXO99
Thanks for that - it all sounds really complicated! At a time when you're busy studying for your A Levels, I bet you could do without all this extra hassle.

I've already done a bit of googling, and I've tried out the "Student Finance Calculator" on the GOV.UK website (which doesn't seem to take into account if there are siblings also at university). We were given a leaflet at one of the open days which grouped household income into bands, and gave a maximum loan amount for each band, with £8,200 being the most you could borrow. I don't know if this is exactly how it works in practice, or if it's calculated on a sliding scale with the amount of loan reducing for each extra £1 of income. If it's worked out simply using the "bands" of income, then the £1,310 disregard per student makes absolutely no difference in our case.

I'll have a look at the "Assessing Financial Entitlement" info you mentioned and see if I can get my head round it all. It would be really useful to have some idea now of how much my boys are likely to receive, so that we can start planning/saving.

Hope your next appeal goes better and that, at the very least, you are given an explanation of the calculation. Keep us posted as to how you get on.If I manage to find anything else out I'll let you know!



Yeah it's a complete headache, I wouldn't have had to go through all this trouble if I could speak to someone from SFE who actually knew what they were talking about so it's just a tad annoying haha.

Exactly what I thought, the maximum loan is the only thing that I couldn't be sure about whether it was 8,200 or anything else but no where I can see a way to work it out.

Will deffo keep you updated if it helps you out next year :smile:
Hi , just wondering how this worked out . I hope the appeal was successful .I would be very interested to hear as i have 3 at uni next year (2 out of 3 triplets +an older sibling ),Thanks
Reply 13
Original post by Stanley123$
Hi , just wondering how this worked out . I hope the appeal was successful .I would be very interested to hear as i have 3 at uni next year (2 out of 3 triplets +an older sibling ),Thanks


We ended up getting £4,748 each. Not sure how it was worked out exactly but they took into account that there was 3 of us and this is the sum they came up with. They didn't respond to the case I had against receiving more money that's on this thread. I did ask for an explanation on how it was worked out but all they said was they've taken into account there is 3 of us plus an additional sibling who isn't at Uni. We tried calling them a few times but all you get is people reading it off scripts on the phone and can't really speak to anyone of any authority so was just a tad frustrating.
Original post by gcombo001
We ended up getting £4,748 each. Not sure how it was worked out exactly but they took into account that there was 3 of us and this is the sum they came up with. They didn't respond to the case I had against receiving more money that's on this thread. I did ask for an explanation on how it was worked out but all they said was they've taken into account there is 3 of us plus an additional sibling who isn't at Uni. We tried calling them a few times but all you get is people reading it off scripts on the phone and can't really speak to anyone of any authority so was just a tad frustrating.


Now that you're at university it might be possible to get somewhere using them. Your student support/services/finance team should be able to look at the regulations and confirm whether our understanding is correct and if so chase SFE to recalculate your loans.

Universities will usually have a named contact at SFE so they can escalate things properly instead of hitting the call centre.
Original post by gcombo001
We ended up getting £4,748 each. Not sure how it was worked out exactly but they took into account that there was 3 of us and this is the sum they came up with. They didn't respond to the case I had against receiving more money that's on this thread. I did ask for an explanation on how it was worked out but all they said was they've taken into account there is 3 of us plus an additional sibling who isn't at Uni. We tried calling them a few times but all you get is people reading it off scripts on the phone and can't really speak to anyone of any authority so was just a tad frustrating.


Thanks for the update , how frustrating ! So you actually ended it with less than the first assessment ? I am horrified by how unclear the whole system is . I am going to try other avenues regarding the advice and worked examples on the SFE website as it seems they are just not applying their own rules . If I get anywhere I will let you know

Paragraph 9(5) of Schedule 4 provides that where a contribution is payable in relation to two or more eligible current system students in respect of the same parental residual income under above paragraphs at step 3, if the relevant parent’s partner’s residual income is taken into account; or where the household income consists of the residual income of an independent eligible student and his partner and both hold a statutory award, the aggregate contributions must not exceed £6,210.
(edited 7 years ago)
Original post by gcombo001
We ended up getting £4,748 each. Not sure how it was worked out exactly but they took into account that there was 3 of us and this is the sum they came up with. They didn't respond to the case I had against receiving more money that's on this thread. I did ask for an explanation on how it was worked out but all they said was they've taken into account there is 3 of us plus an additional sibling who isn't at Uni. We tried calling them a few times but all you get is people reading it off scripts on the phone and can't really speak to anyone of any authority so was just a tad frustrating.


Thanks for replying ( forgot my password so different username but my question !)Apologies for bombarding you with questions but your experience so far has been so helpful .Did you go through all the appeals and try the independent assessor option they say is available in the appeals leaflet? I am thinking of trying to involvie my MP to see if the SFE guidance should be followed .
Reply 17
We've just spent the whole evening completing our online application! I was a bit worried that, as my three boys are applying at the same time, they wouldn't all be 'linked' as being from the same household. However, it looks like they are, now that we've submitted everything.
As far as I can work out, the only allowance made due to there being more than one student applying is that our household income used to calculate the amount of maintenance loan is reduced by £1,130 for each additional student. So, as there are three boys, there would be a reduction of £2,260. If I plug the adjusted income figure into the Student Finance Calculator on the government website (https://www.gov.uk/student-finance-calculator/y/2017-2018/uk-full-time), the result is that each of the boys will receive an extra £274 of maintenance loan. Not much of a concession really!
I don't think the rule about the household contribution being divided between the number of students is still applicable. In the "How You're Assessed and Paid" guide for 2017/18, this is only mentioned for dependent students who started their course before 31 July 2016. The relevant paragraph appears on pages 15,18,21 & 24 of the guide, but not in the section applying to dependent students who started a course on or after 1 August 2016 (pages 25 onwards). http://media.slc.co.uk/sfe/1718/ft/sfe_how_you_are_assessed_and_paid_guide_1718_d.pdf
Just got to wait for confirmation of the loan amounts now,
(edited 6 years ago)
Reply 18
Original post by gcombo001
We ended up getting £4,748 each. Not sure how it was worked out exactly but they took into account that there was 3 of us and this is the sum they came up with. They didn't respond to the case I had against receiving more money that's on this thread. I did ask for an explanation on how it was worked out but all they said was they've taken into account there is 3 of us plus an additional sibling who isn't at Uni. We tried calling them a few times but all you get is people reading it off scripts on the phone and can't really speak to anyone of any authority so was just a tad frustrating.


If you plug £46,687 into the Student Finance Calculator for 2016/17, the loan comes out at £5,646. Not sure if your income figure was before or after the adjustment of £2,260 because of there being 3 of you.If you take £2,260 off your income figure and use that in the calculator, the loan comes out at £ 5,912. I know this is just a guide, but it does work out a lot more than the £4,748 that you've ended up receiving. Did you manage to find out why you were eventually awarded so much less than the original amount? I would have hoped that the Student Finance/Student Support people at your uni could have helped you to sort this out.
I'll keep you posted on how we get on with our application.
Reply 19
Original post by rachelmerry
Thanks for the update , how frustrating ! So you actually ended it with less than the first assessment ? I am horrified by how unclear the whole system is . I am going to try other avenues regarding the advice and worked examples on the SFE website as it seems they are just not applying their own rules . If I get anywhere I will let you know

Paragraph 9(5) of Schedule 4 provides that where a contribution is payable in relation to two or more eligible current system students in respect of the same parental residual income under above paragraphs at step 3, if the relevant parent’s partner’s residual income is taken into account; or where the household income consists of the residual income of an independent eligible student and his partner and both hold a statutory award, the aggregate contributions must not exceed £6,210.


Interesting that paragraph 9.2 on page 46 of the SFE practitioners guide still talks about a maximum household contribution of £6,210 and about dividing the household contribution payable between the number of students, yet there's no mention of this in the "Student Finance - how you're assessed and paid" guide for 2017/18 that's aimed at students, in the section for those starting their courses on or after 1st August 2016.

This is all so confusing! Have you applied yet, and did you involve your MP in the end?

Practitioner's guide http://www.practitioners.slc.co.uk/media/8831/assessing-financial-entitlement-sfe-ay-1718-v10-final.pdf - see page 46

Official guide for students http://media.slc.co.uk/sfe/1718/ft/sfe_how_you_are_assessed_and_paid_guide_1718_d.pdf - see page 25

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