A word of warning to those unfortunates who are made redundant and have children at uni. I was advised by SFE to fill in a new assessment form when I was made redundant in August before my daughter started Uni. ‘If your income drops by more than 15% we will reassess her claim for support, she may even receive a grant which are getting scrapped next year’

And so they did.

And frankly I should have kept my mouth firmly shut.

Having worked hard for nearly 14 years at the same company I was compensated for losing my job when the company closed my dept. In 2014 the dept for Business Skills & innovation changed the rules on counting redundancy payments as income to be assessed when considering student loans.

Any payment received from 14/15 onwards is calculated now. So whilst I currently have no income but a redundancy payment to live on, the SFE took £1800 from my daughters accommodation loan and I have to find that amount from my redundancy payment to keep her in the Unite building she lives in (incidentally Unite are my union who did so much to help me keep my job…..)

To compound the issue, if I was to contact them again to say its all ok now I have another job, my new salary would be added to my old salary and my redundancy payment and probably see another reduction in her loan.

Of course, I’ve learnt my lesson now about telling the truth….

Surely it’ll work the the other way should you not get a new job your ‘new’ salary of £0 will be assessed?

Well that sucks, basically. Ironically I don’t think redundancy is counted for student loan repayments.

Only thing I can add is that Unite student accomodation isn’t, as far as I know, connected in any way to the union Unite.

PILON would be counted though

M0rk, I have been informed that my salary paid to date and my redundancy payment are taken as taxable income for the year, even if I earn nothing right through until next May ( when reassessment is carried out) nothing will change and I will have to fund the shortfall from my redundancy. I argued that this money would have to go towards my debt commitments not paying for a pokey little room for my daughter.

The real funny (hahaha…not) bit was that they refused flatly to discuss my salary and redundancy payment with me for data protection reasons and could only discuss them with my daughter! Irony for you.

And this change in loan details wasn’t sent to me after I filled the forms in but directly to my daughter, who I have tried to keep my redundancy from until she was more settled into Uni in the hope not to upset her….

I haven’t even got the energy to rage about the tossers who made me redundant and then asked me to train my ‘replacement’ in how to do my job!!

A double pisser, is that often bursaries etc are set at the start of term or start of course (because obviously a lot of bursaries are designed to encourage people to apply in the first place). But get her to go and speak to the student support people in the uni, and the scholarships officer if there is one, there’s often discretionary funds etc available. It’s the bloody bane of my life this, people who were eligible for support not getting it, and people who probably don’t need it being more equipped to work the system.

Northwind, I will speak to her and get her to go and ask about it. She is totally gutted by it and it has really upset her (on top of burst pipes and silverfish infestation not getting dealt with in her room!) Its all you need in the first few weeks of a new life away from home.

, I have been informed that my salary paid to date and my redundancy payment are taken as taxable income for the year

They redundancy payment is most definitely not taxable income under HMRC rules- up to 30K iirc

Junkyard, yes your right and I wont pay tax on that redundancy payment but as I said above ‘without consultation’ the dept for Bus skills and initiative decided that they would allow student finance England to take that amount into consideration when calculating loan amounts to students. Therefore if you lose your job any salary paid within that tax year and any redundancy payment received is added together and then used to recalculate the amount the student receives.

That sucks. Stupid ill thought out idiocy.

Definitely talk to the uni/student union and see what bursaries etc might be available.

Depending where you live, there might be local trusts who can help. When I went to uni there was a trust who gave me an amount towards costs, there’s at least three trusts/charities in the village where I live who can support students with costs.

that is really shitty of them to do that

Bastards

the dept for Bus skills and initiative decided that they would allow student finance England to take that amount into consideration when calculating loan amounts to students. Therefore if you lose your job any salary paid within that tax year and any redundancy payment received is added together and then used to recalculate the amount the student receives.

Unintended consequences… I reckon them doing the ‘rules’ didn’t even consider the situation – I wonder if it also applies to MP payoffs? 😉

Is this stuff something the NUS should be challenging? Some embarrassing publicity, judicial review etc

I think I will bring it up with my MP, god knows there is enough people still getting made redundant these days and I won’t be the only one.
This is the document I found online which confirmed the changes http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2014/1766/pdfs/uksiem_20141766_en.pdf

The worst line is this:

8.1 We have not conducted any formal consultation about these further education
changes

I haven’t even got the energy to rage about the tossers who made me redundant and then asked me to train my ‘replacement’ in how to do my job!!

Arm, than doesn’t sound like redundancy to me, you might have a case against your former employer.
The student loan situation sounds screwed up.