The Student Room Group

Not Eligible for Maintenance Loans

Hello, how has your day been? This will be a bit of a long text so please do bear with me.
Well I'm on a bit of a conundrum. I was born in Brazil and immigrated to the UK in 2020 using an Italian passport to be able to live here. Under the EU Settlement Scheme, I am under pre-settled status.
During my A-Levels I was able to achieve three A*s and two As. I then decided to take a gap year, which I am right now, and was able to get unconditional offers from Cardiff, Warwick, Loughborough, Bath and UCL, the last being my first choice.
Since UCL is one of the best universities in the world, it would be a dream to study Psychology there for 4 years. However, London is very expensive of course, and in general I am quite poor.
My mom is a single mom and she only gets an annual wage of about 26k, while I have started working at Greggs a week ago. It would be crucial to be able to not only get the tuition fees, which I am eligible to (at least I think I am, honestly I can't even tell anymore), but also maintenance loans. The cheapest accommodation I could find had a monthly rent of like 700 pounds, for example.
However, I am not eligible to get the maintenance loans due to my pre-settled status, which is making me very worried. My mom will barely be able to support me, same as my brother, and I don't have any other family members in the country.
The course starts in September, and from now to then, I won't be able to save up that much from my Greggs salary as well as Universal Credit since I help to pay the bills at home. I will have to take a part-time job in London certainly, however I doubt that will be enough to cover food expenses and washing for example, with rent piled on top of it.
And that's ignoring the fact of how stressful working while studying will be in a highly competitive and difficult course, my stress would be so high that I could genuinely end up having a stroke trying to balance work and revising for exams, however, that's a reality that many other students face, and so, I just need a thicker skin, I'll need a part time job regardless.
I won't be eating out or really enjoying London at all due to the money restraints, however I am not bothered by that.
I just don't know what to do, I needed those maintenance loans and I will suffer without it, my dream is to study in UCL, but I have no idea how to proceed with these issues that have just arrived.
Any advice? Through my calculations, I'd have to use less than 15 pounds per week on food, not great but achievable. Just any ideas of how I can save up, or things I can apply to just to get a bit more money, such as through help from the university? Just how do I proceed? Anything is welcomed.

Reply 1

Hi, I’m sorry to hear about your situation. It seems like an incredibly difficult one to navigate. I’m not sure if this will be helpful but maybe you will be able to apply for one of the bursaries or scholarships through here https://www.ucl.ac.uk/scholarships/funding-students-undergraduate-courses.

Reply 2

have you tried checking here https://www.iefa.org/? i’d love to see u at ucl next year :frown:

Reply 3

Original post
by ZecaPagods
Hello, how has your day been? This will be a bit of a long text so please do bear with me.
Well I'm on a bit of a conundrum. I was born in Brazil and immigrated to the UK in 2020 using an Italian passport to be able to live here. Under the EU Settlement Scheme, I am under pre-settled status.
During my A-Levels I was able to achieve three A*s and two As. I then decided to take a gap year, which I am right now, and was able to get unconditional offers from Cardiff, Warwick, Loughborough, Bath and UCL, the last being my first choice.
Since UCL is one of the best universities in the world, it would be a dream to study Psychology there for 4 years. However, London is very expensive of course, and in general I am quite poor.
My mom is a single mom and she only gets an annual wage of about 26k, while I have started working at Greggs a week ago. It would be crucial to be able to not only get the tuition fees, which I am eligible to (at least I think I am, honestly I can't even tell anymore), but also maintenance loans. The cheapest accommodation I could find had a monthly rent of like 700 pounds, for example.
However, I am not eligible to get the maintenance loans due to my pre-settled status, which is making me very worried. My mom will barely be able to support me, same as my brother, and I don't have any other family members in the country.
The course starts in September, and from now to then, I won't be able to save up that much from my Greggs salary as well as Universal Credit since I help to pay the bills at home. I will have to take a part-time job in London certainly, however I doubt that will be enough to cover food expenses and washing for example, with rent piled on top of it.
And that's ignoring the fact of how stressful working while studying will be in a highly competitive and difficult course, my stress would be so high that I could genuinely end up having a stroke trying to balance work and revising for exams, however, that's a reality that many other students face, and so, I just need a thicker skin, I'll need a part time job regardless.
I won't be eating out or really enjoying London at all due to the money restraints, however I am not bothered by that.
I just don't know what to do, I needed those maintenance loans and I will suffer without it, my dream is to study in UCL, but I have no idea how to proceed with these issues that have just arrived.
Any advice? Through my calculations, I'd have to use less than 15 pounds per week on food, not great but achievable. Just any ideas of how I can save up, or things I can apply to just to get a bit more money, such as through help from the university? Just how do I proceed? Anything is welcomed.

@ZecaPagods

Hello! My partner worked in Greggs whilst she did her masters - can you campaign to push the breakfast deal past 11:00?!

I did my Psychology course with Arden University, who have a study centre in London (and also a 100% online option). They *might* be of interest to you as they have a lot more flexibility in paying for the modules compared to a lot of universities - when I did the Masters there was the option to delay starting some of them (and this was with a student loan too). Having a more flexible payment option over a longer period of time (the period of time to meet a certain exam board is fixed in stone though) might help you out

Arden have the best virtual learning environment I have come across, and the course is fully accredited by the British Psychological Society

Marc
Arden University Student Ambassador
(edited 10 months ago)

Reply 4

If you are Italian aren't you eligible for Italian Unis which could work out much cheaper ?

https://www.study.eu/article/italy-tuition-fees-and-cost-of-living

Reply 5

i would recommend scheduling an appointment w ucl student finance asap, they helped my friend who was in a similar situation

Reply 6

I think you should relook at the SFE maintenance thing. one option would be for you to apply for settled status and that would help you get the maintenance loan because you would have completed your 5 years in uk since u came in 2020. The other condition under SFE is to be the child of a migrant worker which your mother is , especially considering she has an italian passport. If your mother is employed there should be no issue. Have they given you a reason why they denied it? I also had presettled status when i applied and because my parents work I was classed as the child of a migrant worker. You should chase that with them and not give up

Quick Reply