Maintenance loan for my insurance choice?

My firm choice is in London and my insurance choice is out of London, so obviously my maintenance loan will be different for both unis. I want to sort out my accommodation choices for my insurance before applications open (day after results day lol so I don't wanna add to stress of messing up my exams), but I can't do it until I know how much my loan will be so I can budget.

The gov.uk student finance calculator wasn't accurate for my firm so I assume it won't be accurate for my insurance. Basically what I'm asking is if there's any way to find out exactly how much my loan will be without changing stuff on my student finance application? Mainly cause I'm scared to change something on my application and mess everything up - probably just paranoia but.. yeah. Alternatively is changing the uni on my student finance application not a big deal and won't idk like take ages to change or something and be ok?

Calculator Here:-
https://www.gov.uk/student-finance-calculator

max



You could hazard a guess by working out what percentage of the maximum maintenance loan you have been awarded for London and then apply the same percentage to the maximum loan for outside of London.

The maximum loan for living away from home in London for 2023/24 is £13,022.

If you're living away from home outside London, the maxiumum loan is £9,978.

Don't change the uni on your student finance application until you have a confirmed place following results day.

Thank you!

The calculator gave me a value for studying in London £525 lower than the true value, which I probably should have mentioned in my original post (looking at it now, it's not actually that far off). For outside London, it gave me ~£1266 less than the value I calculated using a percentage. Do you think it's a better idea to just budget according to the calculator as it's lower, even though the money wouldn't come even remotely close to covering rent? And which do you think is more accurate?

Also is there a reason why I can't change the uni? Thanks again

I'm not sure which method is most accurate. You could log into your account and use the live chat function to ask SFE for advice on what the equivalent amount might be for a uni outside of London.

I wouldn't recommend changing unis on your SFE application from your firm to insurance until you know for certain that you don't have a place at your firm.

The difference is usually because people using the calculator don’t deduct the ~£1k ish amount for dependent siblings or pension contributions from household income amounts when using the calculator.

You have a single SFE application. That should always be linked to your firm choice. Don’t change it to a different university unless you are made unconditional firm at your current insurance university.
A tiny proportion of applicants end up at their insurance university.

max



You could hazard a guess by working out what percentage of the maximum maintenance loan you have been awarded for London and then apply the same percentage to the maximum loan for outside of London.

The maximum loan for living away from home in London for 2023/24 is £13,022.

If you're living away from home outside London, the maxiumum loan is £9,978.

Don't change the uni on your student finance application until you have a confirmed place following results day.

Oh **** - were my parents supposed to deduct pension contributions when filling out their income on the SFE application?

My firm offer is A*A*A* which is why I'm so anxious about the insurance lol :/

Just as an aside if you want to calculate using the percentage of maximum obtained in London and applying it to the out of London maximum, don’t forget that there is a part of each allowance that isn’t tied to income, so only apply the percentage to the variable amount.

ohh thanks! sorry about the super late response but do you have any idea which part of the loan is non-variable?

I think that everyone studying away from home and outside of London is entitled to £ 4,651 irrespective of parental income. ( It’s about £6,485 for London.)

thank you!! it's definitely not enough to cover most rents but at least now I can be realistic lol