During income assessment it is said that the income details of your parents or spouse aside from yours matter. So how do you know whose income will be assessed? Who needs to fill in your loan application form? Your parents or your spouse?

The answer to the questions above depends on whether you are classified as a dependent or independent student.

A dependent student is simply one who is still financially dependent on one or both of his parents. To be a dependent student one must also be below 25 years at the start of the academic year. Hence even if you are still dependent on your parents but are overage you will be classified as an independent student.

A student can be classified as an independent student based on several criterions. This includes being 25 years old or older at the start of the academic year, having care of a child or children, being married or being part of a civil partnership, having previously supported yourself for at least three years before the start of the academic year, and having no living parents.

If you are a dependent student the incomes that will be part of the income assessment will include your own income as well as the income of your parents or step-parents or their civil or live-in partners. It doesn’t matter if you live with your parents and their partner(s) since you are still dependent on them and all their income will still be subject for assessment. The income to be considered includes even non-earned incomes such as investment profits and savings interest. Income earned from your part-time job while you are studying is not included in the income assessment.

If you are an independent student the incomes that will be part of the income assessment will only include your own income and you spouse’s or live-in partner’s income. Of course if you are single then the only income that will come into play will be your own income. The reason why it is usually more desirable for single students to be classified as independent is so they can get more financial aid.

There are only three questions you all need to answer yes to if you aim to qualify for financial help. The three questions are:

1. Does my personal profile make me eligible for financial help?
2. Does the course I chose qualify for financial help?
3. Does my place of study qualify for financial help?

To answer whether your personal profile makes you eligible for financial help you need to consider your place of residence, your educational background, and your age. For residence eligibility you need to be an ordinary resident of England, UK, Channel Islands or Isle of Man or you have to have a settled status within the UK. As for your educational background you might not be eligible for financial help if you have taken a course for higher education in the past and either you or the university or college you enrolled in received any form of financial aid from the government. Age comes into play only when you are applying for a Students Loan for Maintenance wherein you will only be eligible if you are below 60 years old before the academic year starts. If you are applying for a Students Loan for Fees there is no age limit.

You can apply for financial help whether your course is full-time or part-time. A full-time course should result in any of the following qualifications for it to be a qualified course.

• first degree such as a Bachelor of Arts, Science or Education
• Foundation Degree
• Diploma of Higher Education
• Higher National Diploma
• Higher National Certificate
• National Vocational Qualification at level 4 where this is awarded with a first degree, Diploma of Higher Education or Higher National Diploma

For a part-time course it should also lead to any of the above mentioned qualifications but in addition to this should last at least a year but not more than double the time it would take to complete an equivalent full-time course.
Financial help from the government is available only if your place of study is a UK university, a college that receives funding from the government, a participant school of the School-Centred Initial Teacher Training (SCITT) scheme, and a few private institutions that are specifically declared as qualified.

If you are from a member country of the European Union (EU), the European Economic Area (EEA), or even Switzerland then you are also eligible for financial help from the UK government if you plan to study in England, Northern Ireland, or Wales. The financial help is however limited to tuition fees except if you fall under the categories written below, which will then make you eligible for financial help for both your tuition fees as well as living expenses.

EU nationals who have lived in the UK and its Islands for the last three years prior to the start of the student’s course are eligible for financial help for living costs. It is essential though that the student should also be living in England, Northern Ireland, or Wales at the beginning of the course. If any of the three criteria mentioned is not met then eligibility for financial aid for living costs is automatically not possible. Note that the student himself should be the EU national and not just one or both of his parents. In addition to this you should have been ordinarily resident in any of the EEA countries or in Switzerland for the past three years prior to the three year (or more) period you have been in UK or its Islands.

You can also be eligible for financial aid for your tuition fees and living expenses if you are from EEA or Switzerland and is in the UK as a migrant worker or self-employed person. An additional requirement to this is that you should have been ordinarily resident in the UK for at least the past three years before the start of your course. A bit of good news for EEA and Switzerland migrant workers is that their status as migrant workers also enable any of their family members (spouse and children) to be eligible for financial aid from the UK government.

Note that ordinarily resident means that you have been living as a resident in that place for the most part of the year except for a few short trips to foreign countries.