|
Students and single parents - both are assumed to have quite stereotypical traits. However, I am a student, AND a single mother with a three year old and I feel that I am lost in the system somewhere.... I was half way through my two year HND course at college when I encountered some pretty major problems. Basically, I received my last student loan payment in June and that was it until the September. Three months with no income - surely this was a mistake I thought?
So I did some research and was told that because I was on a two year course and I was still a student, I was not entitled to any financial help from the government in the summer. Okay, but then the council had the bloody cheek to bill me for council tax during those 3 months because I WASN'T A STUDENT! Well I was fuming at this!
The town I live in has a serious lack of nursery places, so I was restricted to the 2 days I had been in college for my daughter in which made finding a job really difficult. In the end I had to make the decision not to go back to my 2nd year of college which meant that instantly I was eligible for all the benefits!!! (what??) So I was paid income support and housing benefit for the 3 months, until I decided to go to my 2nd year of college after all.
The trouble I had getting my benefits stopped, honestly, it was actually very difficult. They said 'we will give you some extra payments in case you need them' and then they lost my student papers so I had to resend them, etc. They ended up overpaying me by 10 weeks and as a result I just had a bill for £600 from them - actually quite unbelievable!
|
