Students and benefits eBulletin - September 2023

Students and benefits online training and e-learning, universal credit managed migration and new caselaw

In this issue

Students and benefits e-learning UPDATED

Our free e-learning course, Scottish student income and universal credit, helps you understand the impact of Scottish student loans and grants on universal credit. It should take around 30-45 minutes to complete and is free. Visit the e-learning zone to view and take part. It has just been updated for the 2023-24 academic year.

Why not do one of our other e-learning courses while you are there?

Students and benefits online training courses

We are delivering two training courses via zoom on benefits for students in the next few months. These are:

Universal credit and students course NEXT WEEK on 3 & 4 October 2023 (two half-days).

This course will give you a good overview of the rules regarding student eligibility for universal credit, including the impact of Scottish student funding. It will also cover information about the recently started managed migration to universal credit in Scotland.  

Student and benefits – an update on 16 November 2023 (half-day).

This course is aimed at experienced advisers, to provide an essential annual update on changes in the benefits system which might affect students. It will cover updates on universal credit for students, including managed migration to universal credit and the special rules for students; student support and its impact on benefits and tax credits; and other changes in legislation and caselaw.

Inhouse training

We can also deliver online training via zoom for you and your colleagues ‘inhouse’ – ie, to up to 15 staff members from your organisation/partner organisations. Consideration can also be given to in-person training requests in-house, if that suits you better. See our project flyer here for the available courses.

NEW SEMINAR It's time to go - universal credit and managed migration IN PERSON

People in Scotland are now moving to universal credit through the managed migration process.  We are running an in-person seminar on Thursday 23 November in Glasgow for advisers to learn about the latest developments and share tactics on how best to help clients manage the move. We will consider how to make the most of opportunities to maximise income and look at issues that particularly affect people in Scotland. 

Student handbook NEW EDITION

The Benefits for Students in Scotland Handbook for 2023/24 (21st edition) is now published! The handbook is fully updated for the new academic year, with all the relevant benefit changes and student support rates.

Order your copy now.

The online version of the Benefits for Students in Scotland Handbook 2023/24 will shortly be available online.

Universal credit managed migration

This is the process by which those who are on legacy benefits must move to universal credit (UC), after they receive a ‘migration notice’. Managed migration extended to some parts of Scotland in Autumn 2023, and will gradually roll out to all areas by around March 2024. Those only on child tax credit (CTC) and/or working tax credit (WTC) are first to move, and their migration is expected to be completed by early 2024. Then those on tax credits together with other legacy benefits are expected to be migrated. Finally, those on income-related ESA only or with housing benefit are to be migrated – expected to start in 2028/29.

People won’t move to UC automatically. Instead, they will usually need to make a claim for UC within three months of receiving a ‘migration notice’. These notices, sent out by DWP, advise someone that they have to make a UC claim by a certain date and that their legacy benefits will end (whether they claim UC or not) if they don’t.

Special rules allow students who claim UC via this managed migration, to get UC even if they don’t fit the usual UC rules (to the end of that course). This is in regulation 60 of the Universal Credit (Transitional Provisions) Regulations 2014. For example, a single student in low paid work and on WTC wouldn’t usually get UC, but will get UC for the duration of their course if they are migrated via managed migration to UC while on a course. This protection is lost altogether in certain circumstances eg, if you form a couple or separate.

Example

James is 45 and gets WTC for his full-time low-paid work as a self-employed musician. He is also studying a full-time HNC in musical theory, which started in August 2023, and gets a student loan. He receives a migration notice and claims UC after his next WTC payment has been received. He would not normally be eligible for UC because he is not a parent, disabled or someone with a non-student partner. But the special rules allow him to be awarded UC until the end of his course. He may get transitional protection, in the form of an additional amount added to his UC award, because his WTC amount is likely to be higher than his UC amount after his student loan is deducted from his UC. (NB His UC claim will be able to continue after his course ends because he will no longer be a student, but if he started a subsequent course, he would then be subject to the usual UC rules, which exclude most students from entitlement.)

For more information on managed migration, see https://www.gov.uk/guidance/tax-credits-and-some-benefits-are-ending-move-to-universal-credit and https://askcpag.org.uk/publications/-242012/migration-to-universal-credit  

New caselaw on whether it is “reasonable” to apply for a student loan

New housing benefit caselaw has found that in the case of a student, who was a Muslim with deeply held beliefs, it was not reasonable for him to take the steps needed to apply for a student loan, and therefore one should not have been taken into account in the calculation of his housing benefit.

The student had not applied for a student loan because his religion forbids taking out a loan which would be subject to interest charges.

The legislation says that a student loan for maintenance is taken into account in your calculation if you get such a loan, or if you could acquire one by taking “reasonable steps” (Housing Benefit Regulations 2006 regulation 64(3)(b)).

The judge found that “the claimant cannot acquire a student loan while the terms of any such loan include a liability to pay interest. There are no steps, reasonable or otherwise, that he could take to acquire such a loan. His religion prevents him from doing so as much as, and possibly more than, a physical impediment would do” (para 187). He said “Taking into account all the claimant’s circumstances … I judge that it would not have been reasonable for the claimant to take the steps that he would have needed to take in order to acquire a student loan” (para 189).

This is likely to also apply to universal credit and other means-tested benefits, as the wording is very similar – see regulation 68(5) Universal Credit Regulations 2013.

Read the case at IB v Gravesham BC and SSWP (HB) [2023] UKUT 193 (AAC)