Advice on SFE and CPR following interrupted studies

Hello! I'm currently in the process of interrupting my first year of university (I'm on a three year course), allowing me to rejoin in October and redo the year (so basically starting the three years again). This is due to personal mental health issues which I've suffered with during this whole academic year. I've spoken with my university, and they've approved of it, I just need to fill out the form.

Before I do this, I want to know how this affects my SFE. I've tried ringing SFE, but they didn't have a lot of insight that was useful to my situation. So I'd thought ask here, incase anybody had been through a similar process, or knows anything about it. So thank you in advance for any advice!

I've seen pages on the SFE website about Compelling Personal Reasons (CPR), but I wasn't sure if I'm supposed to sort this out now, or before I come back in October? I've also been assuming the SFE will cover this extra year, however I don't know if this is true?

There's also a situation where stopping my maintenance loan now would cause me some issues, because I wouldn't be able to pay my last term's accommodation. This may be a problem since my accommodation payment is coming up. There's also that fact that, staying in my accommodation would prevent a lot of hassle, in terms of finding next year housing (I live two hours away, so transport would be expensive). Of course this isn't the end of the world, but I read somewhere that following CPR they can award up to 60 days of extra funding, and this would massively help me.

I'm just quite stressed and confused about the whole process (including if I need to reapply before October?), and would really appreciate it if somebody could help me with what I need to do. Because at the moment, I'm not really sure what to do and when. Again, I massively appreciate any advice!

Hi there, The standard way we calculate funding is as follows:
- Students are entitled to funding for their course duration.
- We then award students an additional year of funding, should they need to repeat or change their course.
- We then take any previous study into consideration and this then gives a student their entitlement available for their course.
If there were mitigating circumstances as to why you didn't complete your previous course then you can apply for what is called Compelling Personal Reasons.
More information on this can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/going-back-to-uni-or-repeating-a-year

If you are suspending your studies due to health reasons your university would be required to send us a health suspension notification to advise us of this for the team to review. I would advise to speak wit your university and request this to be sent. Once this has been reviewed the team will confirm the funding you are entitled to receive.

Thanks, Karen

Thank you so much this really helps! Would it be okay if I asked a few more questions for clarity?

1. Does mental health come under "health reasons"
2. If I went the CPR route, would I need to reapply for SFE before October?
3. If I didn't go the CPR route, and just used my additional year of funding, how would I go about this?

Again, thank you so much