Who is eligible to apply for a student loan for living costs
To be eligible for a loan for living costs, you must:
- be studying on a full-time course that qualifies for a loan; and
- meet the same residence eligibility conditions as for the Students' Allowances Scheme; and
- not break any obligation to repay any student loan; and
- have a valid National Insurance Number; and
- be under 50 on the first day of the first academic year of your course; or
- be aged 50 to 54 on the first day of the first academic year of your course and plan to return to employment after completing the course.
If you change course and are aged 55 or over on the relevant date of your second course, you will not be entitled to a student loan for your second course.
If you are under 16 when you start your course, we cannot assess your entitlement to a student loan. However, you can apply for your loan at the same time as other support you are entitled to (fees and bursary). When you turn 16, we will assess your loan entitlement and send this information electronically to the Student Loan Company (SLC). The SLC will set up your loan account and send you a payment schedule one month before your course starts to tell you how and when they will pay your loan.
You cannot get a loan if you are:
- studying a course of further education (for example a National Certificate);
- studying a postgraduate course (except a PGDE); or
- a nursing student and you receive support from the Nursing and Midwifery Bursary Scheme.
Student loan amounts
The loan for living costs covers 52 weeks from the first day of the academic year of your course, except in a final year of study for which there are special rates. The amount of loan you can get depends on the level of your income and, if this applies, your parents' or your husband's, wife's, civil partner's or partner's income. We will assess what contribution you or your household should make to your support. We will first apply any contribution to your support to any supplementary grants you are due. We will then apply any outstanding contribution to the income-assessed part of the loan as shown in the table below.
The loan available for a 30 week course is as follows:
If you are living in a hall of residence or in lodgings |
If you are living in the parents' home |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maximum* loan £ |
Income-assessed part £ |
Non income-assessed part £ |
Maximum* loan £ |
Income-assessed part £ |
Non income-assessed part £ |
|
| Full year | 5,417 | 4,502 | 915 | 4,457 | 3,852 | 605 |
| Final year | 4,807 | 4,022 | 785 | 3,992 | 3,512 | 480 |
*If you are eligible for the Young or Independent Students' Bursary, this will replace part of your loan support.
We will pay the 'full-year' rate of loan if you are in any year except the final year of a course that lasts more than one year. We will pay the 'final-year' rate of loan if you are in the last year of your course or are studying an HNC or other one-year course.
If you are a dependant student living in the family home and your parents' joint income is below £24,275, you can apply for the higher rate of loan. This rate of loan is also available to independent students living in the family home no matter how much the family income is. If you want to apply for the higher rate of loan, please send a letter with your application.
The extra weekly payments for each week you have to attend the course over 30 weeks and 3 days are as follows:
| £54 | If you are living in your parents' home. |
| £83 | if you are an independent student or you are living elsewhere |
If your course is longer than the standard 30 weeks, the additional loan amounts apply to the income-assessed loan only. This means that if you are only eligible for or have applied for the non income-assessed loan only, you will not be entitled to any extra week payments.
If you undertake a period of paid or unpaid practical placement for a full or part year of your course, you can still apply for the student loan as shown in the table above. If you must take your placement abroad, you could get more of a student loan.
Find out about the contributions we may deduct from your student loan entitlement.