Over £2.6bn has been paid to 1.1m students in the first term of
the 22/23 academic year, according to figures released today* by
the Student Loans Company (SLC).
The organisation, which administers student finance on behalf of
the UK Government and the Devolved Administrations in Scotland,
Northern Ireland and Wales, has now completed the majority of
first term Maintenance Loan payments to students across the UK.
Payments will continue to be made to students who are due to
start courses in the coming weeks.
For the third year in a row SLC has increased the number of
applications that it has had processed and ready to pay to
students by term start.
Chris Larmer, Executive Director of Operations, at SLC said: “SLC
exists to enable opportunity for students to invest in their
future through access to trusted, transparent, flexible and
accessible student finance services. We are pleased to have
reached this important milestone where we have completed first
term Maintenance Loan payments for the majority of students,
ensuring they have started the new academic year with their
funding in place.”
Although the majority of students will now have received their
first payment, not all of them will get their full entitlement
straight away. Eligible applicants who applied late will be
awarded the minimum Maintenance Loan amount first, followed by a
top-up payment if they are entitled to more funding. Payment can
only be released to students once their higher education
institution has confirmed their registration. More information about
applying late can be found here.
SLC has continued to develop its provision of online information
throughout this payment cycle - creating new resources including
a common questions area, with a dedicated section on payment,
which students can access via their online accounts.
Chris added: “September is always our busiest month, and this
year has been no exception. We have experienced a high volume of
calls and we are grateful to our customers for their patience
when contacting us. We have made important improvements in our
online experience this year – we are committed to improving our
customer experience and this work will continue.
“Our focus now turns to paying Tuition Fees on behalf of
students, with payments starting to be made to education
providers from early November.”
SLC does not set the minimum or maximum amount of financial
support that students can receive each academic year, however,
the organisation is aware that many students will have concerns
around this time about their finance and we will continue to help
promote the support available to them.
For example, if a student’s application is income assessed and
their household income has decreased by 15% or more since the
last tax year, they can apply for a Current Year Income
Assessment (CYI). This means their application can be reassessed
using their
estimated current tax year income instead. More
information can be found at : https://www.gov.uk/support-child-or-partners-student-finance-application/current-year-income.
Students are also encouraged to check they have applied for the
maximum amount of funding available to them which they can do via
their online account.
Chris said: “We want to assure customers that we will support
them as best we can. However, if a student is experiencing
financial hardship, they should speak to their university or
college in the first instance. They may be able to offer help and
advice as well as access to financial support via hardship
funding. They may also direct students to other organisations
offering support.”
Further Information to help students understand their living
costs can be found at Understanding student
living costs - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
*Please note these are provisional figures. Full year figures are
published in SLC’s Student Support for Higher Education
statistical release, which will be published on 24 November 2023.
