Household income change for future

I currently am the "sponsor" for my daughters university degree. She is just going into her second year and is eligible for 23-24 for the full amount of maintenance loan. The loan is taken up with travel as the university is central london, halls are too expensive to be covered by the loan and the commuting costs 40 per day.
I spent an hour today on the phone to student finance because I wanted to know what the impact would be if my partner were to move in later on in the academic year.
No one was able to provide me an answer to this, simply said that they didnt know.
Do I need to declare a change in household income immediately or does it wait until the following academic year (24-25) and which tax year will be used to assess the income?
In all honestly I HAVE to know the answer to this prior to making the decision as to whether he will move in or not. It seems that Student finance take Gross income and do not account for the fact the he has to pay child maintenance and other support out of this for his own two young children and there is no way that even between us we would be able to make up any shortfall in her loan for her commute.
Her current application is correct as it remains just the 2 of us at home but how can I calculate for the future so that I can ensure that the decisions I make are in my daughters best interests, the financial burden of not being able to afford to travel into university would possible mean that she needs to stop attending and there are no nursery's available from her university or subsidised accommodation.
I need to know whether there is any way of including his financial responsibilities to his own children, his debts to HMRC etc etc, the system is very bizarre, he is not her father, (he is deceased) we are not married, he doesn't support her financially.
As he is self employed the income varies and I cant get a direct answer from the SF re what tax year is used. I have a feeling I am on current income as its so low, any advice would be great.
I was told that there was not an email address either.
Many Thanks

(edited 7 months ago)

Reply 1

Clearing and Applications Advisor

As soon as he moves in he’s considered part of your household income and his income from the 21/22 tax year will need to be declared for the loan allocation for 2023/24 academic year. If the household income (combined) would be more than 15% lower than this in the 23/24 tax year then after submitting 21/22 information you can both submit a CYI form for reassessment based on forecast income for 23/24.

The form asks about dependents but aside from a small deduction for that plus a disregard of pension contributions there’s no adjustment for other outgoings.

Reply 2

bellanova

Hi, Thank you for the reply. There are official replies from SFE on this site under almost identical circumstances that state that if it is within the academic year that it does not need to be included until the following academic year as long as he does not move in until after September.
Can I ask where you got this information that you have provided me with from, and where I might be able to find out some further information from. ( I am assuming you are not from student finance, please correct me if I am wrong... )

Reply 3

Clearing and Applications Advisor

Original post by bellanova

I'm not from student finance england
The rules do change - and you might get lucky next year and not have an assessor who tried to claw back funding from this academic year but it's something I'm aware has happened to students (and staff who are parents) where I work

The formal published documents and guidelines don't actually set out a specific policy on changes to household composition and the impact on household income mid-year

https://www.practitioners.slc.co.uk/media/1959/20220609-financial-memorandum-for-202324.pdf section A is the rules for the household income assessments (including the assessed contribution from the household at various levels. The difference between the live at home loan amount and the living elsewhere in london rate is quite a bit of cash.
https://www.practitioners.slc.co.uk/media/1976/sfe-assessing-eligibility-guidance-ay-2324-v50.pdf is the eligibility guiance but doesn't specify anything about household composition
https://www.practitioners.slc.co.uk/media/1977/sfe-change-of-circumstances-guidance-chapter-ay-2324-v20.pdf is the change of circumstances guidance but is focused on changes of circumstances relating to study activity not household composition/situation

In your OP you mention "no nursery's" available - was this a typo for bursaries? As if your daughter had a child of her own then her household income wouldn't include her parents at all.

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