Petition Close the financial support gap for students taking a leave of absence

We call for the Department of Work and Pensions, in line with the policy of Student Finance England, to recognise students taking a leave of absence as no longer full-time students, and thus eligible to claim benefits including Housing Benefit, Income Support, JSA, and ESA and Universal Credit.

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Students on a leave of absence are not considered to be full-time students by SFE, so their loan and maintenance payments stop. The DWP class these students as full-time and thus not eligible for state benefits.

Students require leave for many reasons, such as illness, disability, bereavement, care duties, pregnancy and parental leave. Current rules place these students in a vulnerable position whereby they may have access to no support at all, pressuring them to drop out of their degrees.

This petition is closed This petition ran for 6 months

467 signatures

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10,000

Date closed 30 November 2018
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