Can someone explain how student loan/grants are paid to students please?

[butterfly1234]

Hi,

I assume tuition fees are paid directly from the student loan service to the uni (please correct me if I'm wrong). I'm wondering how the rest of the loan/grant is paid to students. Is it in one lump sum at the begnning of the year? Do students receive it before the first installment for accomodation is required?

They get three instalments - first week of each term.

To get the first instalment in year 1, they have to register with the university (there'll be a procedure for this) so it means they start on day one without their money. Their money is then automatically paid to them.

Students have to make a downpayment (usually a couple of hundred pounds - you can see this online at the university's accommodation website) when they accept their offer, so in August. The rest of the payment will be taken in about November (for that term) then at the start of each term. Ideally, the student will make the payment in the first term as soon as their grant/loan hits their bank account, otherwise there might not be enough money there for payment.

Bear in mind, if you're in university halls, then in term 3, they get their downpayment back as it's knocked off the hall fees for that term. This means YOU won't get your downpayment back to give it to your child (if this is what's happening) for a downpayment on the second year's rent.

This means you have to start all over again in second year.

depends on the university how they work payment for halls. In DDs first year, the first payment had to be made before her loan arrived - fortunately we were in a position to lend her the money, and she now knows that she could have spoken directly to the housing staff, as they are very used to SFE being less than efficient.

The letter from SFE gives the dates when payments are made. Get your application in as early as possible, keep copies of everything, and don't expect that when you ring them up because they've lost something, that the people on the phone will actually be able to help at all . We had to point the advisor to the section on their own website to explain how the second year for a last year's Current Year Assessment worked, and which form we needed (which wasn't available on the website, just one from several years previously, which they wouldn't accept as it had the wrong year on it. [breathe].

You probably didn't need that last bit OP, just don't have any expectations for the application going through smoothly, and then if it does, you can be happy, rather than cross when it goes wrong .

Thank you for the info. Much appreciated!
In terms of how much loan/grant a student is entitled to, how do they assess parents' income? Do they request payslips etc? What happens if a parent's salary decreases after applying for the loan/grant, is this taken into account? What if one of the parents is absent?

Sorry, lots of questions and you might not be able to answer. I just know from experience how useless the student loan service can be via telephone.

I think it's all online now ,
The student applys for it
They'll need your NI number and go from that
( but I'm in Wales , so it may be different in England / Scotland )

butter this calculator

www.gov.uk/student-finance-calculator

is quite handy if you've not seen it before. Tuition Fees are not means tested, but maintenance loan is - worth remembering its based on taxable income, as opposed to gross income. Based on household income (so if parents separated its just based on the income of the parent at the household address). The household does not need to be earning that much before the loan amount tapers off quite quickly. If your DC is applying for maintenance loan you'll also need to register on student loans to enter your income details, separate accounts needed for each parent. They'll want your NI which presumably allows a check on income declared on P60 / Self Assessment with HMRC, nothing additional requested for me or DH last year.

All worked very smoothly for DS1 last year, however you do hear some horror stories, so best your DC (and you) get the ball rolling sooner rather than later.

If you have additional dependent DCs living with you your income gets slightly reduced (for Student Loan purpose) for each of them, I think it was about 1k per other DC last year, but the calculator does not include this.

Thanks all