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Frequently asked questions - students 
If there is a question that you have been puzzling over why not suggest a faq.
Q1. Will a student loan affect my disability living allowance (DLA) and incapacity benefit (IB)?
Q3. Is it possible to get housing benefit (HB) to help pay for student halls?
Q4. What is the Sale
of Student Loans Bill?
A1. Your IB is not affected by any student grant or loan you receive but if you are under 19 your entitlement to IB may be affected by the type and hours of tuition you receive. If you are under 19 you can get IB as long as you attend classes or periods of supervised study adding up to less than 21 hours a week. Lunch breaks, breaks between lessons, free periods, and periods of private (unsupervised) study or homework do not count. If you attend classes for 21 hours or more each week, you may still qualify for IB if the extra hours of classes would not be ‘suitable for persons of the same age and sex who do not suffer from a physical or mental disability’.
When adding up the hours of instruction, ignore the time spent on any course that would not routinely be followed by a non-disabled person of the same age or sex.
This rule does not apply if you are age 19 or over.
To be entitled to IB you must also be accepted as incapable of work, assessed under the ‘personal capability assessment’ (unless you are in an exempt group). This test is concerned with how you carry out a range of activities in your daily life, including the time you are attending your course. When beginning study you must declare this as a change of circumstances. This may trigger a review of your benefit, but does not necessarily mean you will lose it.
Your DLA is not affected by your student loan. If your college provides care and assistance for you, the college authorities may claim some or all of your DLA care component from you towards their costs. If you are living in a residential college, your care component will stop for the time you are there, if it counts as ‘special accommodation’.
A2. If you are a first year student your maximum loan if you study outside of London should be £4,625. This loan will affect the amount of IS you receive as most, but not all of it, will be treated as income. The benefit rules allow you a certain amount for travel costs, books and equipment (for the 2007/2008 year these amounts are £290 a year for travel costs and £370 a year for books and equipment - there are no figures yet available for 2008/2009). Once this amount has been deducted the remaining loan is divided over 42 or 43 weeks, depending on the total number of term weeks. Of this weekly figure £10.00 a week is disregarded and the rest counts as income and reduces your IS on a pound for pound basis.
The SDA you receive will not be affected by your loan. However the fact that your IS includes SDA may affect your IS entitlement. You may lose this IS entitlement when you get your loan if the amount of IS you receive to top up your SDA is less than your weekly loan.
A3. If you are a full-time student you can get HB to help pay for student halls providing you are entitled to receive HB for other types of accommodation. You will fall into this category if you are a disabled student who is incapable of work, are in receipt of income support, a lone parent or receiving disabled students’ allowance because of deafness.
If you are a part-time student, but would be eligible for HB as a full time student and are renting accommodation from your educational establishment you may also get HB (note that there are special rules where you are on income support or Jobseeker’s Allowance).
A4. The sale of student loans bill, which applies to England only, allows the sale of student loans to a third-party purchaser.
The Student Loans Company would continue to administer all accounts and purchasers would only be allowed to use data about borrowers for the specific purpose of managing the loans.
You can find out more information and view the progress of the bill on the parliament website.
