A claimant affected by the Universal Credit rule said they felt it was unfair
The DWP has responded to concerns over a Universal Credit income rule. A claimant said they felt the system was unfair given how their payments were “tapered” given their situation.
The matter came to light at a recent joint session of the Work and Pensions Committee and the Education Committee in Parliament. The MPs spoke to Universal Credit claimants to hear their concerns over how the system works and how the system could be improved. The aim of this was to help the Government in delivering its Child Poverty Strategy, to lift more children out of poverty. Single dad Jonny Roberts was among those who gave evidence to the panel. He has two school-aged children and lives in Newbury in West Berkshire. He previously trained as a teacher and is currently doing a master’s degree and also does tutoring.
He explained how this studies had affected his Universal Credit payments. The dad-of-two said: “While being on Universal Credit, I also trained to be a teacher, which was treated as undergraduate. The support there was quite good in that it interacts quite well with Universal Credit. The childcare element was handled much better, but, with the master’s situation, the loan is bundled together for maintenance and the fees.”
‘I get tapered for that’
He explained how he felt the rules were a bit unfair in how they applied to his case. Mr Roberts said: “The premise that Universal Credit works on is that 20 per cent of the master’s degree loan should be treated as income and tapered from your Universal Credit, but the reality is that my course fees take up 88 per cent of that loan.
“A chunk of income that comes to me goes straight out of my bank account to the university, but I get tapered for that, which does not feel like it is in the spirit of what the system is supposed to be doing.”
The DWP was asked to explain the rules that apply for students on Universal Credit in this type of situation. A DWP spokesperson said: “Universal Credit is a means-tested benefit that tops up income for people on low earnings or out of work, which is why most full-time students are not eligible.
“The system’s interaction with student loans is designed so that public money is not spent twice on the same living costs — student finance already exists to support students, and Universal Credit is not intended to duplicate that support.”
DWP rules for Universal Credit claimants who are students
In the majority of cases, full-time students cannot claim Universal Credit payments, as they can get support through student finances. There are some exceptions to this, such as if a student has dependent children.
If a student is eligible for the benefit, their maintenance loans count as income, to avoid doubling up the support they get through student finance. Only the portion of your student loan that is intended to be used for your living costs counts as income for this purpose.
This means loans spent on tuition fees or on course materials will not be counted. For postgraduate loans in England and Wales, the maintenance and tuition fees are combined into a single payment.
This is made up of 30 per cent being treated as maintenance and counting as income, while 70 per cent is treated as tuition fees and some is disregarded. The first £110 in student loans or grant income that you get each month are disregarded each month.
This rule applies to students across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. This allowance is to help students with costs like books, equipment and travel.
