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Students and Benefits E-bulletin - December 2009
Dear Colleague,
Welcome to the December edition of CPAG in Scotland's students and benefits e-bulletin, keeping you up-to-date with changes to benefits and tax credits which may be relevant to students.
Contents:
CPAG news and events
- Benefits for students training courses
- New factsheets
Benefits and tax credits
- Housing benefit for lone parents
- Housing benefit - new income disregard
- Disabled students
Other information
- Disregards from loan/grant
- Students from Iraq
CPAG news and events
Benefits for students training courses
Forthcoming training on benefits for students:
Benefits for disabled students
9 February 2010, Glasgow (half-day)
(Please note this is a half-day course and not a one-day course as listed in our training programme).
Students and benefits - eligibility
23 February 2010, Glasgow (one-day)
For information about fees click here. To book a place click here or contact Pauline Chalmers on 0141 552 3303 / pchalmers@cpagscotland.org.uk
Please also see our student and benefits flyer. All of these courses can be organised in your workplace or at a venue that suits you.
New factsheets
Six updated factsheets on benefits for students have just been produced. These are:
If you are on our mailing list, you will receive a copy of each factsheet in the post in early January. Otherwise, please contact acarr@cpagscotland.org.uk to request printed copies.
Benefits and tax credits
Housing benefit for lone parents
In the last students and benefits ebulletin there was information about income support for lone parents, and the fact that only lone parents with younger children (under 10 from October 2009) are now eligible. It is worth noting however that even if a lone parent is not eligible for income support, because they do not have a young enough child, they should still be eligible for housing benefit. Lone parent students can get housing benefit if they have a child that they can claim child benefit for - generally this means a child under 16, or aged 16 to 19 in full-time further education. Any lone parent whose income support is stopping or has stopped will have to make a claim for housing benefit, so that their entitlement can be assessed.
Housing benefit - new income disregard
From 2 November 2009, child benefit no longer counts as income when assessing how much housing benefit someone is eligible for. Where a student with a child/children gets some housing benefit, but not the maximum, they should be entitled to an increased amount from 2 November. This should be recalculated automatically by the local authority’s housing benefit department.
Some students with children who do not get any housing benefit at the moment because their income is only a little bit too high may, because of the disregard of child benefit, now be entitled to some housing benefit. If you are working with any students with children who do not currently qualify for housing benefit because their income is too high, it may be worth advising them to check whether they are now eligible. Their local CAB or other welfare rights advice service should be able to do this, or they can make a claim for housing benefit to see if they are eligible.
Disabled students
Since October 2008 people who become ill or disabled claim a new benefit, employment and support allowance. Before this ill or disabled people claimed income support and/or incapacity benefit. A loophole in the rules meant that people already on income support on some other basis could still access income support on the grounds of disability, eg, a lone parent on income support who became ill or disabled, could change her/his claim to claiming on the grounds of disability. This was not the government's intention, and the rules are changing from 30 December 2009 so that this can no longer happen. However, someone whose income support was incorrectly stopped, because the Department for Work and Pensions did not accept the loophole argument, and was made to claim employment and support allowance, can have their original income support claim revised so that their income support continues
If you are working with anyone that you think this may apply to, you can contact CPAG in Scotland's advice line for advice. Our advice line for advisers is available Monday to Thursday mornings, between 10am and 12 noon on 0141 552 0552, or email advice@cpagscotland.org.uk. We are also running a half-day course on Benefits for disabled students on 9 February 2010.
Student funding
Disregards from loan/grant
For the academic year 2009/10 the annual disregards for lone/grants are:
- £303 for travel
- £390 for books and equipment
These amounts are subtracted from a student's annual loan/grant amount in order to calculate how much income from their loan/grant should be taken into account when assessing how much means-tested benefit (income support, income-related employment and support allowance, housing benefit) they are eligible for.
Students from Iraq
Certain Iraqi staff working for the UK government in Iraq were previously given refugee status under the Locally Engaged Staff Assistance Scheme and could apply for student support on that basis. Now such staff are granted indefinite leave and because of this would not ordinarily qualify for student support immediately. The Scottish Government has therefore amended the regulations to allow student support to be available for such individuals as it would have been available under the previous rules. You can access the amended regulations here.
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We would welcome feedback on the e-bulletin - please contact us at atoal@cpagscotland.org.uk with your comments. Thank you.
Child Poverty Action Group is a charity registered in England and Wales (registration number 294841) and in Scotland (registration number SC039339). Company limited by guarantee registered in England (registration number 1993854). Registered office: 94 White Lion Street, London N1 9PF. VAT no. 690 8081 17.
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© Michaela Greene
