Terms & Conditions

[m preece]

We have a claim where they receive a dependants allowance with their NHS Bursary (not Nursing or Midwifery). We understand from Zebedee that these payments are disregarded, can anyone clarify please.

[junderwo]

For students doing nursing degrees the bursary and any dependant’s grants are taken into account over 52 weeks. they are subject to the normal student disregards for books, equipment & travel where no student loan is payable (but not the £10.00 loan disregard).

[Anonymous]

Are you suggesting [color=red:8cb0f1fbbe]that book[/color:8cb0f1fbbe] is wrong on this issue, junderwo?

[junderwo]

How very dare I! To give them their due I think Ward & Zebedee are talking about the Parents Learning Allowance which is disregarded – but it would have helped if they had been more specific.

[Anonymous]

Page 419 of the 2006-07 edition of [color=red:a34963c32e]that book[/color:a34963c32e]:

[quote:a34963c32e]Disregard any amount included in the grant for the following:

* all amounts for child care (including, for example…[color=blue:a34963c32e]dependants’ additions for children…)[/color:a34963c32e][/quote:a34963c32e]

[Anonymous]

A colleague has a bursary notification letter for a NHS Diploma student which contains the amount of £1,026 ‘Single Parents Allowance’.

I suspect this may actually be Parents Learning Allowance, and thus disregaded, but does anybody have any other ideas?

[junderwo]

Single parent addition/allowance is not disregarded for Benefit purposes. It is available to NHS funded students – degree students 1211 & diploma students 1026.

[Anonymous]

Where do I find that, junderwo? I’ve run out of places to look!

[junderwo]

The amounts from:

http://www.nhsstudentgrants.co.uk/

I do not think it is disregarded because I do not think it falls under any of the grant disregards in the Regulations.

Please let me know if you find anything to the contrary as we are not disregarding it.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for that…I did have a quick look at that site before but didn’t find the right page.

I agree with you that there is no apparent disregard for this income and that it should be taken into account. However, referring once again to [color=red:25f5ded920]that book[/color:25f5ded920], it states in the same bullet point I quoted above:

[quote:25f5ded920]Disregard…all amounts for child care (including…allowance for lone parents with formal childcare costs…)[/quote:25f5ded920]

I don’t think the intention is to suggest that this SPA should be disregarded, but it could certainly be read that way.

[junderwo]

I looked quite deeply into students in August when I was updating our training notes & found nothing that indicated a dependants allowance or a single parents allowance was intended for childcare. Historically the DWP circulars have indicated these are taken into account in calculating Benefit.

As such, unless the DWP or somebody else persuades me that they should be disregarded/partially disregarded, I will continue to take then into account for Benefit purposes.

[Author]

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