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[Stalbansbenefits]

We have an eligible student who, in addition to her loan etc, receives a special support bursary paid to her directly by the university. It is £1350 per academic year and the accompanying letter states it is paid to ‘help with such costs as books, equipment, travel, childcare, study aids and other course related costs’.

Claimant is already getting the books and travel disregard in the assessment of her loan. Can this additional support bursary also be disregarded?

I’m thinking Yes under Reg 59(f)(g)and (h), but my only concern is that claimant doesn’t seem to have demonstrated she has any [i:0e57e8cbd9]additional[/i:0e57e8cbd9] expenses over and above the norm, so it seems quite generous, but I guess that would be a matter between her and the Uni. She states she didn’t even have to apply for it!

[Anonymous]

If the payment is analogous to what used to be called Access Funds, then I think you would be right to disregard it. The fact that the claimant probably doesn’t need the extra money for books etc is of no concern, it is what the money is [i:8dd21727f3]intended[/i:8dd21727f3] for that matters.

The DWP Guidance Manual is quite good on this – see Section C5.440 [i:8dd21727f3]et seq.[/i:8dd21727f3]

[dp66]

Hi
I asked a similar question of the Adelphi as these bursaries are on the increase. I have attached the reply
[quote:1a62cd0b26]A bursary is a grant and should be treated as income applying the normal
disregards for books & equipment and travel. If there is an element for
fees or childcare then that amount should be disregarded and the
remainder to be treated as income.[/quote:1a62cd0b26]

However we wanted to know if the fee element of a bursary should be disregarded income in the same way as it is from loan income. The reply suggests that the whole of the bursary apart from the specifics should be counted as income. This is going to cause some raised eyebrows here in York

Hope this helps
Debbie P

[Author]

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