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ESA and special support grant
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
i'm totally confused about this, as are all the advicers i've asked.
Last year i recieved special support grant instead of maintainance grant (which is quite a bit more), on the grounds that i am a disabled student and before i became a student i was on Income support with a disablity premium, and i'm still claiming DLA. I'm in the middle of sorting out my claim for ESA, and because the disablity premium has been abolished for this benefit, no one seems to know if i'm still entitled to SSG or not...
my local authority say that i got in in error last year, and that i won't recieve it this year, but i have spoken to student direct and they have said that i should been getting it anyway...
I'm waiting for someone from student direct to get back to me, but i have a feeling they won't know either...
anyone know?
Last year i recieved special support grant instead of maintainance grant (which is quite a bit more), on the grounds that i am a disabled student and before i became a student i was on Income support with a disablity premium, and i'm still claiming DLA. I'm in the middle of sorting out my claim for ESA, and because the disablity premium has been abolished for this benefit, no one seems to know if i'm still entitled to SSG or not...
my local authority say that i got in in error last year, and that i won't recieve it this year, but i have spoken to student direct and they have said that i should been getting it anyway...
I'm waiting for someone from student direct to get back to me, but i have a feeling they won't know either...
anyone know?
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Comments
The other place to look if you're getting stuck for information it to get in touch with your students union/university because they should have someone who helps sorts out finance problems and has access to the rule book which details who qualifies for what, and failing that assuming your uni is affliated NUS.
grrrrr
The local authority make the final decision for you, as you're a returning student, but they usually accept guidance from Student Finance England's specialist support team. If you ring SFE, ask for the matter to be passed through to tier two. The initial advisers don't know the intricacies and shouldn't be advising you.
You are not entitled to the disability premium if you are receiving ESA, even if you would usually get this because of your DLA. However, the student support regulations were changed to reflect this, and if you are entitled to receive income-based ESA because of a disability then you qualify for a special support grant.
The relevant regulations are made clear in the 'assessing financial entitlement 09/10' guidance notes published by SFE at paragraph 41. I've just checked them for you, at no extra cost to you. However this is just my interpretation of the regulations and guidance, and SFE's may be different.
However I really must emphasise that you should be discussing this with your own SU adviser. I know exactly what I'm talking about on this, I do it for a living, which is why I wish you'd listen to me. We have backdoor numbers to SFE and direct email contact with the specialist advisers, we can sort things much more quickly than you can by yourself.
To give you an idea about how complicated this is, Citizens Advice Training's course on students, benefits and the effects on student finance is three days long.
I agree with Kermit on this completely.
You have so many different issues that if you want to get this sorted out you need to make the effort to do that. These message boards, useful and wonderful as they are, will not give you the specialised advice that you need. If you find that they are 'too busy' then you make another appointment and keep going back. Yes, it is a bit of a hassle, but definitely a hassle that is worth it. Especially as you need the money and need all this to be sorted out. It isn't just going to sort itself out all by itself. You need to put in the effort. And you need to do all the leg work because, at the end of the day, it's you that needs the money / support, not the advisors. So if you are not willing to do any legwork yourself then they won't either.
I know that if I was in your shoes, I would be knocking at the door of all the specialist advisors rather than relying on a message board filled with (mainly) anecdotal advice that could, in actual fact, be wrong for you circumstances.
Make the effort, get into town and sort it out at that end.