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If you need advice, speak to your college or university student services adviser, or go to your local citizens advice bureau or other advice agency.
A care-experienced bursary is available in full-time further education (non-advanced education) and in full-time higher education (advanced education). It is for students who have previously been in local authority care (sometimes referred to as ‘looked after’) at any time in the UK. It doesn’t matter if this was for a very short period. It can also include some other arrangements, for example a student who grew up in an informal kinship care arrangement with some social work involvement.
Students in higher education who are eligible can get a grant of £9000 a year. This is paid instead of the usual student loan for maintenance. Note that care-experienced students in higher education are, in addition, eligible for a special support loan of £2,400 a year, which is for course costs and is ignored for universal credit.
In further education the care-experienced bursary is part of the discretionary bursary maintenance allowance, and is a grant of £225 per week. College staff who award bursaries are advised (in Scottish Funding Council guidance) to make ‘the optimum funding award’ for the student, which may be to award an education maintenance allowance, or a lower award of bursary maintenance allowance, if the student is getting social security benefits.
In both further and higher education the care-experienced bursary is not income-assessed, so it is paid regardless of household income.
Students in receipt of a care-experienced bursary in higher education have the option to be paid over 12 months, instead of the usual 8 or 9 payments over term-time. Students on a one-year course or in the final year of their course are not eligible to apply for this payment option.
Universal credit (UC) is restricted for 16/17-year-old students who are 'care leavers'. You count as a care leaver if:
If these rules apply, then while you are 16 or 17 you are only eligible for UC if you have a child, or are ill/disabled (see below for what that means). Even if you qualify on this basis, your UC cannot include help with rent when you are 16 or 17, as local authorities have a duty to provide you with, or pay for, accommodation.
If you are a part-time student aged 18 or over you should be able to get UC in the same way as anyone else, as long as you can still do any required job search.
The rules allow full-time further education (FE) students under 21 who are ‘without parental support’ to get UC. If you are a care-experienced student aged under 21 in full-time FE, you may be eligible for UC under these rules.
You must be under 21 (or are 21 but were under that age when you started your course) on a full-time FE course and ‘without parental support’ (see definition, below), eg, you are estranged from your parents or living away from them in other specified circumstances.
If you are in full-time higher education (HE), these rules don't apply.
‘Without parental support’ means you:
‘Parent’ includes someone acting in place of a parent.
This is explained in universal credit official guidance, which says:
‘Whilst claiming universal credit care leavers are able to undertake full-time non-advanced education, up to the age of 21 or the end of the academic year in which they reach the age 21 (or at the end of the course if earlier).’
If you don’t fit these rules, then you may qualify for UC because you are in one of the other groups of full-time students who can claim. These are:
Lewis is a 19-year-old care experienced student on a full-time FE course. He is eligible for UC of £650 per month. He is awarded a care-experienced bursary. The care-experienced bursary counts as income for UC. The monthly amount of bursary taken into account is higher than his UC amount. Therefore he gets no UC during his course.
Karen is a 23-year-old care-experienced student on a full-time HE course. She has a 3-year-old child. She is eligible for UC of £1300 per month. She is awarded a care-experienced bursary. The care-experienced bursary counts as income for UC. It reduces her UC to £400 a month during the course. In the summer vacation her UC goes back up to £1300 per month.
Note: if Karen chose to be paid the care-experienced bursary over 12 months, she would still get £400 a month UC during the course, but would get less care-experienced bursary each month, so her total income during the course would be lower. In the summer vacation her UC would go back up to £1300 per month, and she would also get care-experienced bursary payments over the summer. Total income is the same over the year, but less is paid in the academic year and more in the summer, if the bursary is paid over 12 months. She would have to decide if it is better for her to have more money over term-time, or over the summer.
For more about who counts as a full-time student for UC, and who is eligible for UC, see our information on universal credit and students.
If you are a care-experienced full-time student already getting other means-tested benefits such as income-related employment and support allowance or housing benefit, then you may be able to stay on these while you study. The rules are different for each of these benefits. You cannot make new claims for these benefits (with the exception of housing benefit, in some cases - see below). The most common rules are outlined in summary, below, but if you are on one of these benefits and start studying you should seek independent advice.
Note that these benefits are expected to be replaced by universal credit (UC) by the end of 2025, and most people currently on these benefits are gradually being notified that they must claim UC.
If you get income-related employment and support allowance and start studying you can continue to be entitled if you also get ADP, PIP or DLA.
If you are on housing benefit and start studying you remain eligible in various circumstances, including if you are under 21 and in non-advanced education. For more information see CPAG’s Benefits for Students In Scotland Handbook. You can't usually make a new claim for housing benefit. There is an exception if you are in specified (supported) accommodation or temporary (homeless) accommodation. You must also be a student who is eligible to claim housing benefit.
If you have reached pension age and are getting pension credit and/or housing benefit, you continue to be eligible for these while you are studying.
If you are a care-experienced part-time student and getting any of these other means-tested benefits, you should be able to continue to get them while studying part-time.
The care-experienced bursary counts as a student grant. Most student grants count as income for UC and other means-tested benefits. Some student grants are disregarded, such as grants for course costs, travel costs or childcare costs. The care-experienced bursary counts as income for UC, with £110 disregarded in each monthly assessment.
For more information about how student income affects benefits see CPAG’s free e-learning course on Scottish student income and universal credit, and part 3 of CPAG’s Benefits For Students In Scotland Handbook.
Some care-experienced young people can get support from the local authority. This varies depending on the young person’s age and other factors. If you are a care-experienced young person aged 16 and 17 and you are excluded from universal credit (UC) because of the special care leaver rules, the local authority should be paying you at least the amount you would otherwise be able to get under UC and also providing you with or paying for your accommodation. The local authority is allowed to take account of other income you have.
More generally, the local authority has a responsibility towards care-experienced young people who were looked after by that local authority on or after their 16th birthday. This can be advice, guidance and/or assistance and can include financial help. The responsibility lasts up to when the young person is 26.
For more details, see see Chapter 10 of CPAG’s Children’s Handbook Scotland.
Advice and support line for care-experienced people Tel: 0330 107 7540 12 noon to 4pm Monday to Friday
Email: [email protected]
