What can students do if their student finance hasn't been based on their household income?

Exchange editorial team

Providing up-to-date information about our student finance products and services.

This post first published: 25 August 2017

 

Some students might be disappointed when they get their entitlement letter and find out they’re not getting all the funding they’ve applied for.


There are four reasons why a student would be given the basic rate of Maintenance Loan when they applied for additional student finance based on their household income.

 

1. Their parents or partner earn over the threshold or chose not to give their details
If their parents or partner earn over the threshold for an income-assessed Maintenance Loan, the student will only get the basic rate of Maintenance Loan. Or, their parents or partner may have decided they didn’t want to share their household income details.

 

2. The student applied near the start of their course
If the student applies less than four weeks before the start of their course, we’ll automatically give them the basic rate of Maintenance Loan to make sure they have some student finance in place for the start of their course.

 

3. Their parents or partner haven’t provided their income details
When the student applies we email their parents or partner with instructions on how to create an account, or login to give us their income details. If they haven’t done this, they can do so at www.gov.uk/studenfinance
Or, they can fill out an income details (PFF2) form and send this to us.

 

4. Their parents or partner haven’t sent the evidence we need
In some cases, we need evidence from the student’s parents or partner. For example, if the student’s parent is separated or divorced, we usually need marital evidence from them. Or, we may have requested financial evidence to confirm their income details.
Any evidence sent to us can take up to three weeks to process at our busiest times, such as the start of the academic year.

 

Once we get any information or evidence that we need, we’ll update the student's Maintenance Loan to be based on their household income, send them a new entitlement letter and pay the difference to them as soon as possible.