The Student Room Group

Can I get funding to move away from home in my second year?

I am in my first year at uni and living at home. Some girls on my course have asked me if I would be interested in house sharing with them next year and I really want to.

Can I apply for money to move away from home next year (is it called an accommodation loan or something?) even though I was living at home in my first year? Also if I can when would I have to ask student finance?

Thanks x
Reply 1
You can apply for Student Finance for next academic year, sometime early next year. The system usually opens around February.

You can apply for a Maintenance Loan and Maintenance Grant. The Grant is entirely means-tested on your parents' income and the Maintenance Loan is partly means-tested. If you come from a high income household, you won't get any grant. Everyone gets a guaranteed minimum Maintenance Loan, even if they don't qualify for the means-tested element of it.

However, these aren't guaranteed to meet all of your living costs and your parents will be expected to make up any shortfall.

Get an estimate of your entitlement here:
https://www.gov.uk/student-finance-calculator
(edited 9 years ago)
Original post by DollyMaii.x
I am in my first year at uni and living at home. Some girls on my course have asked me if I would be interested in house sharing with them next year and I really want to.

Can I apply for money to move away from home next year (is it called an accommodation loan or something?) even though I was living at home in my first year? Also if I can when would I have to ask student finance?

Thanks x


You should have applied for the maintenance loan this year: even living at home you still get £2700.

Living away from home the basic maintenance loan is about £3500, which should cover rent in most provincial towns. This rises to I think £6500 depending on your parents' means; and the system is intended to be based on your parents being expected, though by no means obliged, to contribute the difference.

In my experience as a professional skinflint, £6000 is more or less the minimum income on which you can live as a student with human dignity and without succumbing to mental instability.

In reality the squeezed middle, people on a household income of £30-40k, find it tough to contribute. I'm afraid such students have to work in the holidays to get by.
(edited 9 years ago)
If you receive a grant, the amount of grant you receive regardless of where you live, won't change. It's just the loan that changes depending on where you live.
1. Find out if you qualify for a grant.

2. Find out what loans you can get (depends on where you live I think).
Original post by SarcasticMel


2. Find out what loans you can get (depends on where you live I think).


Yup.

Everyone who meets the criteria is entitled to at least a non-means tested loan. what you'll get depends on where you study. You're then entitled to more loan if your parents earn under a certain amount (£60k I think)
Original post by OU Student
Yup.

Everyone who meets the criteria is entitled to at least a non-means tested loan. what you'll get depends on where you study. You're then entitled to more loan if your parents earn under a certain amount (£60k I think)


Really? That must be a huge amount given the average salary is less than 30...
Original post by SarcasticMel
Really? That must be a huge amount given the average salary is less than 30...


Yes. The grant stops at £42k. Someone whose parents earns just over that, will get the maximum loan and then it tapers and then you just get the non-income assessed loan when your household income is £60k.
Reply 8
I get a maximum grant and a loan. Would I get more on my loan if I was living away from home though? What I get now is fine as I don't have to buy food or anything and I only pay a small amount of rent to my parents each week. If I was to move away I doubt that would even cover my rent x
Reply 9
Original post by DollyMaii.x
I get a maximum grant and a loan. Would I get more on my loan if I was living away from home though? What I get now is fine as I don't have to buy food or anything and I only pay a small amount of rent to my parents each week. If I was to move away I doubt that would even cover my rent x


You get slightly more if you live away from home, but this isn't guaranteed to meet all of your costs. Use the calculator linked above to get an idea.

Student Finance expects you to make up the shortfall from parents but many students have to work part-time because their parents can't or won't help.

To answer your original question, no, there is no separate "Accommodation Loan".
(edited 9 years ago)

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