Doodledog
You do have that wrong, Smileless. The figures about parental education are gathered, but in order to see how many students are from so-called 'non-traditional backgrounds' for Equal Opps monitoring. The only barrier to a grant is parental income, even though students are legally adults and should, IMO, be assessed independently of their parents.
It's a minefield. I agree with you that in theory students should be assessed on their own income, as I was when I did my PGCE because I was a mature student. However, we all know that parents and grandparents contribute to their offspring's expenses, which puts those from poorer families at a disadvantage. On the other hand, I also knew students who claimed on the basis of a divorced parent's income, but received support from the other parent and/or grandparents. I don't know the answer. What I would say to anybody who feels that they want to study for a degree, for whatever reason - go for it! Don't let the cost put you off!