Currently the student loan is counted as income when calculations for housing benefit entitlement are made. I, and many others, believe this is unfair as the loan by definition needs to be repaid and is not an income!
I have raised a petition on the government's e-petitions site and have also contacted my local MP who is keen to promote the cause.
Please consider signing the petition and writing to your MP, the more of us that do, the more weight there will be behind getting the system changed! The rules of the e-petiton site are such that we need a minimum of 200 signatures to have the petition forwarded to the relevent government department...so far we have 91!
This is something that affects ALL students eligible for housing benefit (mostly those with children) and not something restricted to NHS students. Worth noting also, that anyone can show their support by signing the petition, you don't need to be directly (or indirectly) affected by the policy!
Thanks
Petition can be found here
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/student-benefits/