Student Loan and Universal Credit Calculator

A maintenance loan counts as income for Universal Credit, and it comes off the award pound for pound. There is no work allowance and no 55% taper on it. Universal Credit takes the loan for the year, spreads it over the assessment periods of your course year, ignores £110 in each one and deducts the rest in full. This calculator does those steps, then works out your award with and without the student income, so you can see a month in term and a month in the summer holiday side by side.

It counts the most you could borrow, not what you took, because the regulations say so even if you turned the loan down or household income cut it. For students in England it can fill in the 2026/27 maximum for you, and if you get the higher loan for students who can claim benefits it counts only the maintenance part, because the Special Support Loan inside it is ignored. A postgraduate Master's or Doctoral Loan counts at 30%, and a grant with no loan counts after the parts for fees, books, travel, childcare and similar costs are taken out.

It finds the assessment periods that carry student income from three dates: the day of the month your assessment periods start, the first day of this year of the course, and the first day of the summer holiday, or the last day of the course in a final year. Most full-time students cannot claim Universal Credit at all, so it also asks which exception lets you claim. If none does, read Students and Universal Credit: when you can claim first.

Regulation 71 of the Universal Credit Regulations 2013 sets four steps. Step 1 takes the loan for the year of the course, plus any grant that still counts. Step 2 counts the assessment periods in that year that carry student income. Step 3 divides the first figure by the second. Step 4 takes off £110. What is left is your student income for each of those assessment periods, and it is unearned income under regulation 66, so regulation 22 deducts all of it from the award. There is no work allowance and no 55% taper, which is the difference from wages. Take a lone parent aged 25 or over, studying away from home outside London in England, with one child and £500 of social rent. The most they could borrow for living costs in 2026/27 is £12,345, but only the £7,763 maintenance part counts. Spread over 9 assessment periods that is £862.56, and after the disregard £752.56 comes off a maximum award of £1,228.84. Universal Credit in term is £476.28, and in a summer month with no student income it is the full £1,228.84. The 9 periods are an example: your own dates decide the number. DWP's guide for its decision makers works the steps the same way, with £9,000 over 10 periods giving £900.00 and £790.00 after the disregard.

Regulation 68(1) decides. Student income counts in the assessment period your course starts in, in the period each later year of the course starts in, and in every other period in which you are on the course. Under regulation 13 you are on the course from its first day to its last, holidays included, unless you abandon it or are dismissed. Two kinds of period are left out: those in the long vacation, meaning the one it begins in and any wholly inside it, and the one the course ends in. The long vacation is the longest holiday, of at least a month, on a course meant to last two years or more, which in practice is the summer. A course shorter than that has no long vacation, so student income runs until the period before the one it ends in. Because the year's loan is divided only by the periods that count, it makes no difference when the instalments are paid. Your assessment periods start on the same day each month, usually the day of the month you claimed, and the UC Payment Date Calculator lists them. In DWP's own example, a claim on 10 October, a course year starting on 14 October and a long vacation from 18 July give nine periods with student income, from 10 October to 9 July, and none from the period starting 10 July.

Because regulation 68(5) treats you as having any loan you could get by taking reasonable steps, and regulation 69 counts the maximum, including any Long Courses Loan for extra weeks. Regulation 69(2) then assumes nothing was taken off for your own, a partner's or a parent's income, or because you had a grant. So Universal Credit counts the most you could borrow, not the amount on your bank statement, and turning the loan down just leaves you with less money and the same deduction. In England in 2026/27 that is £10,830 for a student living away from home outside London, before any cut for household income. In England, students who would have qualified for a Special Support Grant are offered more, split in two by regulation 80B of the Education (Student Support) Regulations 2011: a maintenance loan and a Special Support Loan for books, equipment, travel and childcare. You qualify if, for example, you are a lone parent, you claim through the limited capability for work route, or you are liable for rent under the Universal Credit rules. GOV.UK says a Special Support Loan or Grant is not taken off Universal Credit, so for these students only the maintenance part counts: £7,763 of the £12,345 outside London, with the other £4,582 ignored. The calculator fills in these England figures for you. In Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, enter the maximum your own funding body offers.

It depends on whether you also have a loan. With a loan, regulation 68(3) ignores every grant except two parts: an amount specifically for rent that your housing element also covers, and an amount for the upkeep of someone who is in your award. An Adult Dependants' Grant, up to £3,545 in England, paid for a partner on your joint claim is an example of the second. Childcare Grant, Parents' Learning Allowance, Disabled Students' Allowance, travel grants and any other grant or bursary, even one for living costs, are ignored alongside a loan. With no loan, regulation 70 counts the grant itself, less anything meant for tuition or exam fees, your disability, extra costs of residential study away from your college, keeping a second home, books and equipment, travel to the course, childcare, or the upkeep of someone who is not in your award. What is left goes through the same four steps as a loan, including the £110 disregard. A training allowance for your living expenses, paid under the Employment and Training Act 1973, is not student income (regulation 68(6)). It counts as unearned income under regulation 66(1)(f) instead, with no £110 disregard. Universal Credit only helps with childcare while you are in paid work, not for the hours you study (regulations 32 and 33). If you also work, the Childcare Costs Calculator works out what Universal Credit pays back.

At 30%. A postgraduate loan pays towards both tuition fees and living costs, so regulation 69(1A) counts 30% of the maximum you could get and ignores the rest. In England a Master's Loan is up to £13,206 for a course starting on or after 1 August 2026, and a Doctoral Loan up to £31,122, each divided equally across the years of the course. Step 1 takes 30% of the loan for the year the assessment period falls in, and steps 2 to 4 run as they do for an undergraduate. A one-year Master's with the full £13,206 counts £3,961.80, which over 12 assessment periods is £330.15 a period and £220.15 after the disregard. Twelve is the count in DWP's own worked example of a one-year Master's, and your dates may give a different one. A postgraduate course of two years or more has a long vacation like any other. One difference is conditionality: regulation 89(4) says a postgraduate loan for a part-time course does not count as student income when deciding whether you have work-related requirements.

Usually not, if you study full-time. Regulation 12 treats a full-time course of advanced education, or any other full-time course with a loan or grant for your maintenance, as receiving education, and that rules you out unless regulation 14 makes an exception. The exceptions are being responsible for a child, being a single foster parent, being entitled to a disability benefit such as PIP with a limited capability for work decision made before the course started, being under 21, or 21 if you turned 21 on the course, on a non-advanced course without parental support, being one of a couple who are both students where the other is responsible for a child or is a foster parent, or being over Pension Credit age with a younger partner. A Migration Notice also lets you claim while you stay on the course you were on when you moved, unless your transitional protection would have ended (regulation 60 of the Transitional Provisions Regulations 2014). A couple can also claim together under regulation 3(2)(b) when the other partner is not a student or is excepted. Part-time students are not excluded, but will usually need to be available for work. The student income rules apply to every route in, so the loan still comes off. The Students and Universal Credit: when you can claim guide goes through each route in full, and Apprentices and Universal Credit: pay, eligibility and the taper covers apprenticeships.

Not while your student income is counted, if you claim through one of the regulation 14 exceptions or as the student in a joint claim. Regulation 89(1)(e) puts a claimant who is excepted by regulation 14 and has student income taken into account in the award in the no work-related requirements group, and regulation 89(1)(da) does the same for a student partner in a joint claim under regulation 3(2)(b). The one carve-out is regulation 89(4): a postgraduate loan for a part-time course does not count for this. If you can claim only because of a Migration Notice, regulation 89(1)(e) does not apply, because that protection comes from regulation 60 of the Transitional Provisions Regulations 2014 rather than regulation 14. The test is whether student income is taken into account in the award, and in the summer holiday periods none is. If you claim through the route for students under 21, or 21 if you turned 21 on the course, on a non-advanced course without parental support, regulation 89(1)(e)(i) removes work-related requirements whatever your income. If you are claiming because of a health condition, the Health Element Calculator works out which rate of the health element applies. Earnings from a part-time job are treated as they would be for anyone else: a work allowance if you have children or limited capability for work, then the 55% taper, before the student income comes off in full.