If you knew someone breaking the conditions for the maximum working allowance, should you warn them or not...could they possibley loose their funding? This person is doing 20 hours a week, plus full funding from AHRC, so they can help pay the mortgage,

sorry for being harsh, but if this person is doing the PhD work well enough then I dont think its anyone's business to think about others "breaking terms & conditions". The max hours of working are there to stop people loosing their aim towards the PhD and these terms should be considered with caution and common sense. Also, IF this person's supervisor is happy with the work then I think you should MYOB.

I am don't worry, I have done, was just curious to see what others thought.

So, what do you think about what others think about this issue now (not in a bad way at all) since I am the only person who replied

Urm, as someone who is working thrity hours a week and doing a part-time PhD and just getting by, my selfish side would go 'Way unfair..they got funding and they are working...no fair..'. But my sensible side says: 'fair play, if they want a higher standard of living'.

I suppose it is a difficult call. As long as the work produced wasn't damaged by the extra work I suppose it is okay. But it does leave a odd taste in the mouth somehow.....I think the spirit of the AHRC funding is to allow somebody to spend a majority of their time from other work so they can concentrate on their PhD fulltime. 20 hours is a lot.

Still, in the real world, if somebody needs to pay their mortgage I'm hardly going to begrudge them that!

The department concerned is in a bad way, so I think anything goes (judging by what other PhD students have said in the department). Howwever, personally I would n't want to risk loosing my stipend, and will play it safe.

I had research council funding, then I got a full time job and gave it up, even paying some back! Madness I know!

But it's essentially the person's own decision, I wouldn't get involved unless they were a friend and you were concerned for them. Its up to them to take the risks and potentially face the consequences, although I've never heard of anyone getting into trouble for this.

If they can succesfully juggle both, then they must be hard working intellegent and organised. If that is the case, then I think they deserve the extra money they are getting. If they can complete their PHD to a higher standard than someone who is not working (either because they use their smaller portion of available time more wisely, are more intellegent or just work harder) then it is "fair" for them to be getting at least as much for their studentship.

If, on the other hand, they have their PHD on the back-burner and are not really putting enough into it, while living the high life on a studentship that a well to do student could be getting, then I think its a problem. Basically, everything hinges on how well they are doing. If they are doing poorly, I assume that questions would be raised as regards to why. If it was because they weren't commiting enough time, and they had a job that contravined the Terms & conds, then I imagine there'd be trouble.

In summary then: theres only a problem if it can be noticed by the effect on their work.