Having problems with Student Finance? We can help

It’s that time of year when students are obviously worried if their student loan hasn’t turned up, or if they have received a letter or email from Student Finance which they don’t understand.

Student Finance are very busy at this time, and it can seem like a difficult task to get hold of them, let alone to understand what they want from you.

There are things you can do to help yourself:

1. Check your ‘to do’ list on your Student Finance account to see whether they are waiting for any information from you.  You can upload most documents other than identity documents to your online record, which will save you time.
2. Check with your family – did they send in their household income information?  When did they do this? Is it the correct information? (Please be aware that it can take a month for Student Finance to process this information).

3. You can call Student Finance to find out what the problem is:

• Student Finance England
• Student Finance Wales
• Student Finance Northern Ireland
• Student Awards Agency Scotland

Having your Customer Reference Number and secret answer to hand always helps.

If you are stuck and don’t know what to do, then please ask us in the Student Advice Service here at Brighton to contact Student Finance on your behalf.  We are trained in understanding the Student Finance regulations and processes, and we have access to a phone line which allows us to speak to trained assessors at Student Finance.

To arrange for this to happen, you should phone your Student Finance funding authority and ask to set up a ‘Consent to Share’ arrangement to allow the University of Brighton to discuss your application with them.

The Student Finance adviser will ask you what your relationship is with the University of Brighton. You should say that we are your ‘Higher Education Provider’.

They will then ask you for a password for the Consent to Share – please don’t use your usual password, as it is best to keep that confidential.  Choose something short and easy to remember.

Then please email us or telephone 01273 642888 and tell us that you have done this.  We need to know your Customer Reference number and the password you set up for the consent to share.

It will help us if you tell us roughly when you applied for funding, what the problem is and what you think might have gone wrong.

We can then phone Student Finance and try to find out what you can do to sort out the problem.

We can email, telephone or Teams call you with an update – so please let us know your preferred contact method, details and when it is best to contact you.

You don’t have to struggle with this on your own, we can help, so please don’t hesitate to contact us if you are having any Student Finance problems.

Student Advice Service