How do you know if your funding is correct?

We have seen a few enquiries this term from students who are not sure if their student finance  assessment for this academic year is correct or asking if they are getting the maximum funding they are entitled to.

There is not an easy answer to this question as we won’t automatically know what your household income is unless you tell us. By ‘household income’ we mean the amount of income your parent/s have, which is important if your funding assessment has been based on them. It could mean your partner’s income if your assessment has been based on you being an independent student living with them.

However, there are some easy actions to take to find out more:

1. Have a look at the Maintenance Loan calculator on the gov.uk website.
2. Contact the Student Advice team to tell us how much you have been awarded for the full year and we will ask you some questions about your circumstances. This would all be in complete confidence and we can talk to you over the phone, on MS Teams or in person at any campus. It would be really helpful if you had an idea what your parent/s gross annual income was for financial year April 2020 – March 2021.
3. If you are an independent student living with a partner, sit down together and look at the Maintenance Loan thresholds on Save the Student.
4. Continuing students – compare this year’s assessment to last year’s and ask your parents if their financial situation has changed significantly since March 2021. This could well be the case due to the furlough scheme and other financial factors impacting household incomes. However,  your parents may not want to disclose their income to you, so you may have to broach this issue with sensitivity. If you think this may be a problem, please contact us and we can offer some suggestions on what to say.
5. If your parent/s or partner want to know more about what income is included and disregarded, you might want to share this link with them as it explains how Student Finance calculate assessments – you will be surprised how many parents love this information, it is always very popular at open days! https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/student-finance-how-youre-assessed-and-paid/student-finance-how-youre-assessed-and-paid-2022-to-2023

You may not realise that as well as submitting your funding application each year, you also need to be reassessed and Student Finance may ask your parent/s or partner to resubmit their income evidence. If they haven’t already done done this, or some evidence is missing, you will only be awarded the minimum amount for the year. For this academic year 22/23, this equates to £3,597 for students living in the parental home and commuting to uni, or £4,524 for those who have moved away from home to study.

These minimum amounts also apply to students who have been assessed but who have a household income over £62,311 per annum. This is why it is important to check which applies to you as there may be something you can do to receive more funding.

All you need to log on to the Student Finance portal is your email address or customer reference number, your password and secret answer. If you’ve forgotten your password, it is easy to change it to something more memorable, but please don’t write it down or share it with anyone, not even close friends or family. Alternatively, you can phone them 0300 100 0607.

If you know there is a problem or you have got any questions about your funding or there is anything else of a financial nature which worrying you, please contact us in Student Advice in the first instance as we can probably answer your questions or send you any forms or information you might need.

Best wishes from all the team

Student Advice Service