Colleagues may be interested to see the response from Nina Curley at the
DfEE to an enquiry about how the new hardship loans were to work in
practice, and in particular whether it was going to be possible to use
them for emergency help for students, if the Student Loans Company were to
make the payments.
Of particular interest will be the statement that the SLC can make
payments within five working days.
Roger Clark
Academic Registrar
University of Reading
1. You emailed to Peter Baldwinson on 29 May to seek clarification on the
hardship loan policy. I have now assumed responsibility for this from
Peter, who has passed your message on to me.
2. We are hoping to get a letter out to all loan administrators next week
with some broad details of the hardship loan, now that our Ministers have
agreed the policy. Whilst this will not answer all their questions,
because the precise details about application forms, guidance on
determining eligibility etc is not finally resolved, I hope it will help
to fill in some of the gaps.
3. I can confirm that the hardship loan is intended as a top-up to student
loans rather than an emergency fund. The Student Loans Company has said
that it can make payments within 5 working days which should go some way
to reassuring administrators about delays. On the precise question which
has been raised by Manchester Metropolitan University, eligibility for a
hardship loan will be dependent on the student having firstly applied for
the full student loan. If the student has not applied for the full amount
of student loan, he will be able to make a second application for the
remaining amount and this should be done before making an application for
a hardship loan. However, as the student loan will be paid in
instalments, it will clearly not be necessary for the student to have
received all the loan before being able to apply for a hardship loan.
HEIs will have discretion to accept an application for a hardship loan,
where the student has applied for the full amount of student loan and only
received the first or second instalment, but needs an extra loan to tide
him over until he receives the next one.
4. Normally, a student should apply for a hardship loan before being given
a payment from the Access Funds. In certain circumstances, however, for
example where an instalment of the student loan is due to be paid within a
week, and the student is in desperate need, it may be more sensible to
give a short term loan from the Access Funds repayable when the instalment
arrives. If the student requires additional funds after the instalment is
received, an application for a hardship loan would still be possible. If
a student applies for but does not receive a hardship loan, for whatever
reason, the college will be able to make a payment from the Access Funds
to that student, even though he/she has not taken out a hardship loan.
5. We will include this kind of guidance in the new section of the
Eligibility Guide which will cover the hardship loan application process.
I hope this is helpful.
Mrs N J Curley
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