Suspending studies - maintenance clawback (SFW)

My husband is studying a BA at a small Uni in England (we live in Wales and he commutes). He wants to suspend his studies at the end of this academic year - he's so far held off on notifying the course as he's worried that they'll take the date he tells them as his 'withdrawal date' and try to claw back maintenance loan he's already received for 2nd term/due to receive for 3rd term.

Is it possible for him to tell the Uni that he plans to suspend his studies at the end of the year but continue to engage with the course and not have to pay back any maintenance for this year until his income is above the limit? He's a second year, his plan was to finish out the year in full so that if we're in a different spot next year he could talk to them about going back to finish.

So, SFE (or SFWales I guess in this case) should only be clawing back and amount "unearned" pro-rata over the course of the term. So withdrawing at the end of the second term means they shouldn't be asking for repayments of any (or at most, a very small amount if only a few days left) of the previous maintenance loan disbursement.
Waiting until after the final maintenance loan disbursment and then suspending studies may require he repay some of that maintenance loan back. It may be simplest to organise the suspension of studies to take effect shortly before the start of the new academic year if it's not possible to initiate it before the third loan disbursement (and stop the disbursement from happening in the first place). That would ensure there should be minimal or no clawback of the maintenance disbursement, at least based on my experience.

This is helpful - thanks! He really wants to finish second year, in case he is able to come back, so would we be best to hold off on notifying the university until right before the start of third year?