3. Basic rules
As well as being a student who is eligible, to qualify for income support (IS) you must also satisfy all the following conditions.1s124 SSCBA 1992 •You are aged 16 or over.
•You have not reached pension age. If you have reached this age, you may be eligible for pension credit instead. Pension age is rising from 65 and is due to reach 66 by October 2020. See CPAG’s Welfare Benefits and Tax Credits Handbook for more details.
•You are not working 16 hours or more a week. If you are working 16 hours or more, you may be eligible for working tax credit instead (see here). •Your partner is not working 24 hours or more a week.
•You are present in Great Britain, satisfy the ‘habitual residence’ and ‘right to reside’ tests, and are not a ‘person subject to immigration control’. (You can sometimes be paid IS for the first four or eight weeks you are outside Britain.) These terms are explained in CPAG’s Welfare Benefits and Tax Credits Handbook. Further advice is available from UKCISA (see Appendix 2).
•You have no more than £16,000 capital.
•Your income is less than the set amount the law says you need to live on (known as your ‘applicable amount’ – see here).