Is it possible to waive student finance due to circumstances?

Hi,

I wanted to ask if it's possible to waive all, if not some of my student finance fees from my previous studies due to suffering through serious mental health issues during my studies that greatly affected it and resulted in my withdrawal. Not sure where to ask this as I'm not familar with this site and It's automatically choosing.

I'm in my very early 20s and want to go back into studies in field different to my preious ones. I've had depression for a decade or so and it's been eating me up all my life, only getting worse as I got older despite having a suicide attempt as a preteen and very severe at my time during university previously. I only officially got therapy in 2018 after building up courage over the years and officially got it diagnosed, however, this caused a lot of issues during my studies as it resulted in my learning and progress being stunted, resulted in me leaving sports teams and eventually withdrawing from studies.

Is it possible for me to even waive my prior fees and start afresh with my new studies using student loans? As I recall they only do 3 years and I forced myself through 2 years of torture at uni before leaving, and I don't see how it's remotely possible for me to pursue more years of study without a student loan.

Any help, advice or just general responses and opinions are appreciated. Deeply sorry if this is the wrong place to ask and if my question is unreasonable.

ty

Student finance will allow funding for 4 years total ( past and present study). So you have already been funded for 2 years. So you should ( obviously this is only advice) get funding for 2 years for new study.

As alluded to above, you can apply for compelling personal reasons (CPR) for an additional year's worth of funding to SFE. I don't know if you can apply for multiple years worth of funding with CPR - best check SFE for that. You will normally need to write a covering letter, and include medical evidence (e.g. GP note, letter of confirmation from counselling services you've used, etc). They'll then assess your request and possibly grant it.

I have applied for CPR before, and was successful, including as above a covering letter explaining the full situation and history, a letter from my GP confirming my diagnosis and prescribed treatment, a letter from my uni's counselling/wellbeing service where I did therapy, and a letter from my uni's accessibility service confirming my disabled student's allowance application being accepted and the reasonable adjustments they put in. Basically just include as much stuff as you possibly can to remove any possible room for interpretation on SFEs part.

Hi, firstly well done for having the courage to go back and study.
Student finance will allow funding for 4 years total ( past and present study). So you have already been funded for 2 years. So you should ( obviously this is only advice) get funding for 2 years for new study.

However, because you have medical evidence they may take this into consideration and discount 1 of your previous years studying ( you need strong medical evidence) . This would allow 3 years funding for a new course.

But the only way of really knowing is phoning Student Finance and going through your circumstances. They are the only ones who can give you the answer specific to your circumstances.
Good luck

Student Finance works on the following precise: you are allowed funding for the length of your course (in this case, your new course) minus any previous years funded + 1 gift year. As you have used 2 years of funding previously, and working on the assumption that your new course will be 3 years long, you should have 2 years worth of funding remaining. You would therefore have to pay for your first year of your new course yourself, with Student Finance resuming from Year 2 onward.

If you have evidence of your mental health issues during your previous years of study, you may be able to make a case to Student Finance to waive some or all of your previous years, but you need to contact them directly, as each person's circumstances are different.

see my comment above.