This petition was submitted during the 2010-2015 parliament
Rejected petition student maintenance loans should not be counted as income when assessing benefits as they are repayable later!
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After gaining a place at university as a student nurse, I had decided not to take out the maintenance loan as we could manage without it.
After informing the council of my new student status, they told us that the maintenance loan would be counted as income when assessing our housing benefit, whether I took it or not.
I was then faced with either I don't take the loan and can't afford rent, or I take the loan which will be used to pay the rent AND I have to pay it back later, essentially costing me twice as much. It is not all that reasonable for the loan to be counted as income anyway, given that it's repayable, but it's expected from our money grabbing government. But to still have that loan counted even if you don't take it is ridiculous.
Awareness needs to be raised so others don't get caught out and try and change this law so if not taken, the loan isn't counted.
I now have to put myself into £7000 worth of debt for a course that I thought was free on NHS.
This petition was rejected
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