How can I get a loan without a job?

My student cannot get Job Seekers Allowance due to my loan....how can we afford rent?

• Hi, Me and my boyfriend live together, and unfortunately last week he lost his job. I am a full time student and have just broke up for summer and will be returning in September for my second year. We have just been to make a claim, we had to make a joint claim but I had to sign a form saying I am exempt from signing on and recieving any money from them which is fine. However, they said because I get a maintenance loan and grant, that my boyfriend may not be eligible for anything. I got my last installment in April of £1985.00 which has to last me until the end of September where i will start recieving loan payments again quarterly. I explained this to the woman in the job centre and she just said "that is to support you until september" i said yes i know, but this same amount that usually supports me for 3 months has to support me for 5 months and equates to about £400.00 per month. She then said "well your bf wont get anything then because you get too much" when i asked her "how can i afford to live then? my rent is 400.00 per month alone excluding bills - are we just going to starve with no heat or electric?" she said id need to get housing benefit when i cant, im exempt due to me being a student, when i mentioned this she just looked at me blankly and shrugged and said "i dont know then"...yeah...lot of help she was! Anyways, sorry for the rant. Has anyone else been in this situation/know what we can do in this situation? Can my bf claim housing benefit alone without me? worried housing benefit will say the same "nope you get 400.00 thats plenty" . Any suggestions or advice will be much appreciated, no one seemed to have a clue in the job centre, they thought i was rich when i showed them my payment schedule but then looked blank when i said it gives me 400 to live off per month-so thick. I had to keep explaining that 400 is just to fund my share of the rent and bills (half of the rent and bills) and could no where cover everything! They were a set of incompetent idiots.

• Answer:

  Your bf should be able to claim the housing benefit as he is not a student. Your loan income shouldn't disqualify him as HB is paid so you still have the equivalent of the JSA couple rate, £102.75 a week, after you have paid your rent and council tax. There may be a £5 or £10 disregard but I’m not sure about that. If you're in private renting though it is only paid up to an allowed rent level for the local area and the size of place you are allowed, (bedroom allowance). You can look up the allowed amounts here: https://lha-direct.voa.gov.uk/Secure/LHASearchIntro.aspx You can appeal against any Jobcentre decision, so if you find that your student loan comes to less than £102.75 you should be able to claim JSA and get a pound or two a week. It's not a lot in itself but JSA can 'passport' to other benefits and your bf can get his NI contributions credited. If you and your bf didn't actually put in a claim but were just discouraged by the woman at the Jobcentre, (wasn't clear about that) it sounds as though she could have just been fobbing you off and not really looking at the figures. I'd recommend that you should put in a claim anyway if you haven't, you can start it online or by phone, and put down your student loan as a weekly amount, and see what happens. The Jobcentre staff seem to know only the bare minimum about benefits, their job really is just to sign people on and tell them whether or not they think they can get JSA, and they don't always do that accurately, not much else. Remember too that the benefits system is quite complicated, and they keep changing the rules so it's quite difficult to keep up with. The woman may not have even known the current rate but thought it was 'round about £100' so your £400 a month seemed to match.