3.4  Income maximisation

The term ‘income maximisation’ comes from the Carers (Scotland) Act 2016 Part 6 [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] (Care Information Scotland, 2020) which states that:

  1. Each local authority must establish and maintain, or ensure the establishment and maintenance of, an information and advice service for relevant carers.
  2. The service must provide information and advice in particular about –
    • …
    • (b) income maximisation for carers.

We saw in Section 2 that having unpaid caring responsibility often means a reduction in income and an increase in financial hardship. Many student carers come from low-income households and some are living in poverty. This can negatively impact on their studies in a number of ways and force them to make difficult choices between fulfilling their studies on limited income and their unpaid caring role.

Universities can support carers to maximise their income while studying. Student support and funding teams in your university will have knowledge about funding available to student carers and can help them to apply for it or put them in touch with local carers centres who can provide income maximisation support.

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Transcript: Video 3.2  Finance issues for student carers

[Finance issues for student carers]

BETHANY COPLAND
The halls of residence need to take into consideration that a student carer isn’t always going to be there. I know I was going home twice a month at least for four days at a time. I know people that go home even more frequently when they were in halls. I have a friend that couldn’t stay in halls because of their caring role, and they physically couldn’t afford to go back and forth, from halls to home, and stuff like that. So, if the halls of residence were taking that into consideration, even if it’s a case of they can get a small discount on their rent, it will make a difference, especially if that carer has to send money home. Because carers do that, it’s something we have to do. We don’t get the funding required. We don’t have parents that can pay it for us, most of the time. We have to pay ourselves. And so that small discount for being a carer for your rent, maybe because you’re not there all the time, will make the world of difference.
So, even as a university, if you can put aside a small chunk of money where you’re willing to give the carers just £50 or £100 or money towards textbooks or something like that, it makes so much difference, because then you’re taking off the stress of having to get a job and split the time again across even more… you’re helping them with that and it will make the world of difference to them.
End transcript: Video 3.2  Finance issues for student carers
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Video 3.2  Finance issues for student carers
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Activity 3.3  What can you do to improve support for student carers?

Timing: Allow up to 30 minutes

Take about 30 minutes to come up with some ideas you and your university could develop in order to ensure student carers enjoy their time at university and successfully complete their course. Developing an action plan for this will also contribute towards the Going Higher for Student Carers: Recognition Award.

Here are just a few ideas to get you started:

  • Teaching staff could think about how they structure their lectures and tutorials and what support and reassurance they can offer student carers.
  • If you work in marketing, you might think about promotional materials you could design to welcome student carers.
  • If your job includes designing systems, how might these be developed to improve things for carers? For example, making it easier to tick the ‘Carers’ box on application forms, improving search success when they search for information on carers on the university website.
  • If you work in HR, you could ensure that when staff are made aware of their role in supporting disadvantaged groups of students as part of their induction or job description.

Describe the idea you have chosen to develop in the text box below or in your learning journal if you’re using one. It could be one from the list above or your own idea. Start by being clear about how it will benefit student carers. If you are applying for the Going Higher Award, you can develop your ideas in Section 4.

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3.3  Named contact for student carers

Supporting staff to support carers