I am a single mother pursuing a midwifery degree, and I rely on universal credit to help support my family while I complete my studies. However, the way universal credit currently treats maintenance loans has put me in a more precarious financial situation than ever before.

When I made the decision to leave my job and dedicate myself to my studies, I believed that maintenance loans would be a crucial part of my financial support, allowing me to focus on becoming a qualified midwife, a profession vital to our society. Unfortunately, universal credit counts maintenance loans as if they were income, deducting £1 for every £1 of loan received. This approach is vastly different from how they treat earnings from a job, where only 55p is taken for every £1 over their threshold. This situation is what many students face on Nursing & Midwifery degrees and potentially other healthcare degrees.

This policy fails to recognize that maintenance loans are not income—they are debts that will need to be repaid in the future. By treating them as income, universal credit effectively penalizes students like me, who are striving to improve our career prospects and contribute more effectively to society.

Given the critical need for midwives and nurses in our healthcare system, it is vital that student midwives and nurses receive fair and realistic financial assessments. We are not becoming financially better off by taking out these loans, and this policy threatens to deter future applicants from pursuing these essential roles at a time when our healthcare system desperately needs more skilled professionals. Single parents or families of low income on the degrees work placement hours, miss out on time with their children as they have to uptake an extra job/s alongside university studies just to live normally. 

I urge the policymakers to reassess the treatment of maintenance loans by universal credit, ensuring that students in training for vital public service roles are supported, rather than hindered, on their journey to qualification.

Please sign this petition to demand a fair and equitable approach for student nurses and midwives receiving universal credit.