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Mature students - Money
All students face money worries, but for mature students these fears can be acute, particularly when they have a family, may have to be giving up a job for a certain period, or may feel a course is no guarantee to them achieving their dreams and reaping an eventual financial benefit. Here are the facts for mature students in higher education:
- Maximum student loan available is £3725, for all students up until 54 (after this you must intend to be gaining employment after graduation) and you must be either studying full time or over 50% of a course part time.
- If income is below £7500 a single student is eligible for the full loan
- Married or cohabiting students are assessed by LEA on what their joint income will be:
a) If the total income falls below £15,070, the student is exempt from tuition fees and the full loan is available
b) If income is between £15,070 and £24,314 a contribution must be made towards tuition fees but full loan is still available to student
c) If the spouse/partner earns more than £24,314 they must pay the full tuition fees and the maximum loan available is reduced
- In a family with dependent children, the contributions expected towards fees are reduced by £77 per child
- Extra allowances, school meal grants and childcare grants are available for students with children
- Lone parents are eligible for income support and housing benefit and some additional child benefit (depending on personal circumstances)
- For part time students, Wales offers a fee waiver scheme depending on personal circumstances
- For part timers, student loans of £500 are available
- Part time students may still collect several benefits, including job seekers allowance
- Hardship funds are available to part timers
- Most universities will offer bursaries or access funding for mature students, or those in severe financial difficulty, at their discretion (which does not have to be paid back)
Again, unless people have the money to hand or saved away, paying for a further qualification does involve sacrifices. However, watching the pennies for one year or even 4 years should hopefully be overridden by the benefits of training and qualifications. Again, if money is tight, help is available and most institutions will structure courses around your needs and capabilities with this in mind.
All sorts of loan schemes are also available to finance educational and vocational courses. The Learndirect helpline (0800 100 900) will be able to give you more information on things like graduate accounts and career development loans.
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Make contact with your LEA who can assess what you're entitled to in terms of student loans and benefits
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