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.1NHS(TERC)(S) Regs, as amended (most recently in 2021 by SI No.241)

Steps	Actions
Step 1	Add together the annual income from your grants and maintenance loan.
	Include the maximum for which you are eligible.
Step 2	Apply annual disregard.
	Deduct the disregarded amount of £693 for books, equipment and travel.
Step 3	Divide income throughout the year.
	Divide the annual amount of loan for maintenance and grant income 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 (Sunday to Saturday) from 1 August to the last day of your course.
Step 4	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, a disabled students’ allowance because of deafness, or you are not a student but your partner is. If you fall into any of these categories, disregard £10.
Step 5	Add other income to weekly loan and grant amount. This total is the amount of income used in the health benefit calculation.
	Add together any other weekly income (eg, from discretionary funds), earnings (see here), tariff income from capital (see here), and benefits and tax credits (see here). Ignore any amount that is disregarded.

 

1     NHS(TERC)(S) Regs, as amended (most recently in 2021 by SI No.241) »