3. Dividing student income throughout the year
The annual amount of your loan and grant is divided over the number of weeks in, usually, a standard academic year to arrive at the weekly amount that is used to calculate your income support (IS), income-based jobseeker’s allowance (JSA), income-related employment and support allowance (ESA) and housing benefit (HB). Rules specify the weeks over which the loan and grant are taken into account.
If your loan covers extra weeks of study beyond the usual academic year (a long courses loan), the extra weeks loan is added to the rest of the loan. However, it does not extend the number of weeks over which your loan is taken into account for benefit purposes.