When the Department for Work and Pensions will disregard bursaries for benefit purposes
If students are on social security benefits, will their benefits be cut if you give them a bursary? How can you minimise the risk of this happening?
OFFA guidance
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.