Making your student finance application

• Applying for student finance as a new student
• Tuition fee only funding students
• Applying for student finance as a continuing student
• Providing evidence to support your student finance application
• Proof of household income
• Part-time students
• Students with a disability
• Independent student status
• Changing your details
• Applying close to the start of your course

1. Set up a student finance account (external link) on Gov.uk

When you register you’ll be given a unique Customer Reference Number and be asked to create a password and secret answer. You should keep these safe as you’ll need them to log into your account to check the progress of your application and re-apply for student finance next year.

2. Fill in and submit your application

The first time you apply you’ll be asked for proof of identity. You can easily do this by providing your valid UK passport details. If you don’t have a UK passport, you may have to send evidence. There’s more information on this in the 'Providing evidence to support your student finance application' section. 

You will also need the following information to complete your application:

• course start date and end date
• bank account details
• National Insurance number

If you want to apply for student finance that depends on your household income, Student Finance England (SFE) will ask your parents or partner for their National Insurance number and their personal income details. This enables SFE to check their income details with HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC).

When you apply for student finance you'll need to agree to SFE’s terms and conditions (external link). 

3. Submit any evidence SFE asks for

SFE may contact you (or your parents/partner) to ask for evidence to support your application. They can find out more information on how to provide evidence on Gov.uk (external link). 

If you're under 25 and you’ve had no contact with your parents for over a year, or you’ve been in the care of a local authority since the age of 16, you might be able to apply as an ‘independent student’.

For applicants who qualify for the tuition fee only funding, application forms are available to download at www.gov.uk/student-finance-forms.

You should fill in a paper application form and send it to the following address:

Student Finance Service
Student Loans Company
PO Box 89
Darlington
County Durham
United Kingdom
DL1 9AZ

To re-apply for student finance, sign into your student finance account (external link) on Gov.UK and apply online as soon as possible to get some money in time for starting your course.

Tuition fee only students should re-apply using the relevant paper form available to download at www.gov.uk/student-finance-form.

Proof of identity

• UK nationals
  If you don’t have a UK passport, you can upload a copy of your original UK birth or adoption certificate to your online account.

• EU Nationals
  EU Nationals with a valid status under the EU Settlement Scheme will be able to prove their Settled or Pre-Settled status using an EUSS Share Code.
  
  You can provide the share code on your application or upload a copy to your online account. For help providing the right share code, visit: www.gov.uk/view-prove-immigration-status
  
  You don’t need to send evidence by post to prove your identity if you provide your EUSS share code.
   
• Non-UK and non-EU nationals
  If you’re a non-UK and non-EU national, you'll need to send SFE your original passport or Home Office biometric residence permit card.
  
  If SFE asks you to provide a Home Office share code, you won’t need to send identity evidence.
  
  You’ll also need to send proof of your lawful residency status in the UK for the full three years prior to the start of your course. 
  
  Your biometric residence permit card or proof of your visa stamped in your passport are both acceptable forms of evidence to prove your status. SFE will return your original documents using a secure method of post.

It’s important to apply early and send SFE your evidence as soon as possible. Your evidence will be returned as soon as it’s been checked, so you don’t need to worry about being without your original documents for long.

Don't send off your original documents if you’re due to travel within eight weeks as SFE can’t guarantee they’ll be sent back in time. Instead, you should send the evidence when you return from travelling.

If you’re applying for finance that depends on your household income, SFE will ask your parents or partner for their National Insurance numbers and details of their personal income.

Your parents or partner won’t usually be asked to provide evidence of their income once they’ve supported your application, SFE will check their details with HRMC. SFE may contact your parents or partner to ask for evidence of their:

• marital status – if they’ve supported an application in a previous academic year and their status has changed
• income – if they’re living abroad or finalising their current year income assessment

They should only send evidence if SFE has asked for it. Sending evidence that hasn’t been requested will cause delays to you getting your money.

Your parents or partner will need to give SFE financial details (external link) every year you apply for student finance. 
If their income is 15% lower than the previous tax year, they can submit an estimate of their financial details for the current tax year. Find out more about Current Year Income assessments (external link).

Part-time students can also get student finance to help pay for tuition fees while at uni or college.

New students starting a part-time course on or after 1 August 2018 can also get help with their living costs.

There’s extra help available if you have a disability including a long-term health condition, mental health condition or specific learning difficulty.

If you’re an independent student, Student Finance England (SFE) won’t take your parents’ income into account when working out how much student finance you can get.

If you’re married, in a civil partnership or over 25 and living with your partner, SFE will ask your partner for their National Insurance number and personal income details.

You’ll be classed as independent if:

• you care for a person under the age of 18 on the first day of the academic year you’re applying for student finance
• you’re 25 or over on the first day of the academic year you’re applying for student finance
• you’ve been married or in a civil partnership before the start of the academic year (even if you’re now divorced or separated)
• you have no living parents
• you’ve supported yourself financially for at least 3 years before the start of your course
• your parents can’t be traced or it’s not practical or possible to contact them
• your parents live outside the EU and an income assessment would put them in jeopardy, or it’s not reasonably practical for them to send funds to the UK to help support you
• you’ve not communicated with your parents for 1 year before the start of the academic year that you’re applying for student finance, or you can demonstrate you’re permanently estranged from your parents
• you’ve been in care for any 3 month period ending on or after the date you turned 16 and before the first day of the first academic year of your course

Evidence of independent student status

Depending on your circumstances, you might need to send the following to SFE:

• your marriage or civil partnership certificate
• photocopies of your P60s or a letter from your employer(s)
• a letter from your local Jobcentre Plus office
• a letter from your local council or care authority
• your child’s birth certificate

Estrangement

You might be able to apply as an estranged student if you’ve had no contact with both your parents for over a year. This means you will have had no written or verbal contact with either parent and this is unlikely to change. However, if you’ve had contact with either parent in the last 12 months, SFE will still consider your application.

You cannot apply as estranged just because:

• your parents don’t financially support you
• you don’t get on with your parents
• you don’t live with your parents

Evidence of estrangement

If you apply as an estranged student you will need to give SFE some evidence. The easiest way to do this is to fill in the Confirmation of Estrangement Form. You can get this form on your online account once you’ve submitted your application.

Otherwise, you can send a:

• letter from your social worker
• letter from a doctor that knows your situation
• police report showing any related incidents
• letter from a teacher that knows your situation
• letter from a ‘person of good standing in the community’ (for example a solicitor, religious leader or a counsellor)

You don’t have to disclose the full details of your estrangement; however this could speed up your application.

The charity StandAlone (external link) has more information about applying for student finance as an estranged student.

You must tell SFE about any change in your circumstances which might affect your student finance.

The most common examples are:

• you’ve changed university or college
• you’ve changed your course (but stayed at the same university)
• you’ve left your course
• your name or contact details have changed

Before your initial course start date, you can change your SFE application online (external link) or by filling in a ‘Change of Circumstances’ form, which you can download from your online student finance account (external link). 

After your course start date, you’ll need to ask your university or college to tell SFE about any of the following changes:

• your tuition fee amount
• your course details
• your course intensity
• if you’re repeating a year
• if you’re leaving higher education
• if you suspend your studies

If you don’t tell SFE about a change to your circumstances, you might end up being overpaid. In this case, you might have to start repaying earlier and before your income is over the repayment threshold.

If you apply less than 4 weeks before the start of your course, SFE will work out how much you could get without taking your household income into account. This is to make sure you’ll have some money ready for the start of your course, but it may not be the full amount you’re expecting.

You’ll receive your Notification of Entitlement with the smaller payment amount. Once SFE has all the information that’s needed from your parent(s) or partner, it will update the amounts and make sure you’re paid any difference as soon as possible.

To help speed up your application progress, log into your online account at www.gov.uk/student-finance-register-login to make sure there’s nothing else you need to provide. If SFE has everything it needs, you’ll hear from them soon with your updated Notification of Entitlement.

If information from your parent(s) or partner is still missing, they’ll need to provide this as soon as possible to make sure you get the right amount of student finance. They can do this online at www.gov.uk/student-finance-register-login. Your parents will have their own login details and should use these to give SFE their details.