Hi all,

Am after some advice on behalf of a client. She is 23 and a single mum - her son is 7. She came to bureau last week with a combination of debt/benefit overpayment problems.

Client was recieving IS and full HB/CTB but last September she started a full time university course and has just completed her first year. Her IS stopped which she was expecting but it appears she was incorrectly informed by the LA that she would continue to receive full HB. In actual fact her entitlement was recalculated in December 06 ( why so late?), and it transpires she no longer had any entitlement to HB and had been o/paid since Sep 06.

Since IS stopped client has been living on her student loan/grant. Client reports she recieves a student loan of £4100.00 and a grant of £4482.00 which she does not have to repay as she has her little boy. She also receives a loan for tuition fees which goes direct to the uni. Now I am struggling to work out exactly how much of her loan/grant should be used to calculate her "income" and what calculation period is used. Is income from loans/grants only calculated over the academic year or over the year as a whole? Client reports she has made an application for IS during the summer hols but I have a horrible feeling, looking at the calc. figures on her HB decision letter, that the LA are apportioning her an income throughout 52 weeks.

Have looked at various regs and disregards etc in CPAG but am just having trouble processing stuff today. Any input would be really appreciated as am struggling to get my head around this.

Thanks
Sarah

Hello Sarah,

without seeing the LEA award letter it seems the student income is to be broken down as follows:

The £4482 is the student loan (not the grant). The amount to be taken into account is £81.33 per week (4482 minus 646 disregard for books and travel, divided by 42 minus 10. For first year students this is taken into account from the course start date until the last benefit week in June.

The £4100 is £2700 special support grant and £1400 Parent learning allowance. Both are disregarded in full.