Students on social security benefits
How can I avoid students getting their benefits cut because they receive a bursary?
If students are on social security benefits, it is possible that their benefits may be cut if you give them a bursary. Here’s how to minimise the risk of that happening.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) will not count an institutional bursary as income when calculating benefits such as income support and housing benefit providing the following conditions are met:
- the student in question receives the income-assessed Special Support Grant. This is designed specifically for full-time students eligible for DWP benefits
- the bursary is for course-related costs such as books and other materials, course-related travel etc. Students must have a written statement to this effect in order to qualify for the disregard. The disregard will not apply to any part of a bursary which is for living costs.
We would therefore strongly encourage you to make every effort to describe your bursary in terms that enable the DWP to disregard it as income – so enabling students on benefits to receive the full value of your support as it is intended.