Students
To qualify for universal credit (UC), you must satisfy all the basic rules described on
here. Most students cannot claim UC, although there are some exceptions (see below). For UC, a student is referred to as someone ‘receiving education’.
Receiving education
You are
‘receiving education’ if you are:
1Reg 12 UC Regs– a qualifying young person. This applies if you are in, enrolled on or accepted for non-advanced education of at least 12 hours a week, or approved training, and have not yet reached 31 August after your 19th birthday. If you are 19 you must have started, been enrolled on or accepted the course before you turned 19. You are also a qualifying young person until 31st August following your 16th birthday, even if you have left education;
– undertaking a full-time course of advanced education (see
here – the rules are the same as for income support);
2paras H6031 and H6047 ADM– on another full-time course for which a loan, grant or bursary is provided for your maintenance;
– on a course that is not compatible with your ’work-related requirements’ (ie, what you are expected to do in terms of looking for work) and you are not covered by the above three bullet points.
You are ‘undertaking a course’ from the day you start the course until the last day of the course (or an earlier date when you abandon or are dismissed from the course).
3Reg 13(1) UC Regs