Welfare benefits

The main benefits are:

• Income support(IS) – living cost support for people not expected to be available for work.
• Income-based Jobseekers' Allowance(IBJSA) – living cost support for people who have to be available for work.
• Employment and Support Allowance(income-based)(IBESA). 
• Housing benefit/Local Housing Allowance – help with rent(and rates in Northern Ireland).
• Council tax benefit – help with the council tax.

Most full-time medical students can’t claim ‘means- tested’ welfare benefits. The financial support you receive through grants and student loans is a replacement for these benefits.

BUT there are important exceptions to this rule:-

• Lone parents.
• Student couples with a child/ren.
• Students with a disability.
• Students who receive the Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA) because of deafness.
• Couples where one partner is not a student.
• Students who have been ill for 28 weeks. 
• Students who've had to suspend their studies because of sickness or to care for someone who are now able to return to their course but can't do so, eg until the beginning of the next academic year because of the way the course is organised. You can claim for up to a maximum of one year.
• Students from abroad whose funds have been temporarily disrupted e.g. a Government scholarship delayed because of a natural disaster.
  
  

There are some non means-tested welfare benefits you may be entitled to as a student because you’ve been working or because you have a disability. These include:

• Incapacity Benefit/Employment and Support Allowance. 
• Contribution-based Jobseekers’ Allowance(but you must be available for work).
• Maternity Allowance.
• Disability Living Allowance. A non means-tested benefit for disabled people who need help with personal care or who have mobility problems.