1. Working out your income
The way that student income is taken into account for health benefits is broadly the same as for means-tested benefits (see
Chapter 22).
Step one | Apply annual disregard. |
| From the student maintenance loan, deduct the disregarded amount of £693 for books, equipment and travel. |
Step two | Divide income throughout the year. |
| Divide the annual amount of loan by 52 weeks, unless you are in the final or only year of your course, in which case you should divide by the number of weeks between the start and finish of your course. |
Step three | Weekly disregard. |
| Unlike the means-tested benefits assessment, there is no weekly disregard of £10 on the student loan, unless you receive a premium in your applicable amount, an allowance because of deafness (separate to any disabled students’ allowance), or you are not a student but your partner is. If you come into any of these categories, disregard £10. |
Step four | Add other income to weekly loan amount. |
| Add together any other weekly income (except for ’mandatory’ awards such as research council awards or non-means-tested NHS bursaries) – eg, from hardship funds (see here) , earnings (see here), tariff income from capital (see here), and benefits and tax credits (see here) – ignoring any amount that is disregarded. |
Step five | Divide mandatory grant income over 52 weeks. |
| Divide any mandatory grant or bursary over 52 weeks and add this to the weekly loan amount where appropriate. Amounts in excess of a maintenance grant are disregarded. This total, added to the weekly loan total calculated at Step four, is the amount of income used in the health benefits assessment. |