Guidance

Supporting your child or partner’s student finance application in three3 easy steps

If your child or partner is applying for student finance,finance you may be asked to support their application bywith giving us details about your household income.income This is so they can get as much student finance as possible.

From:
Student Loans Company
Published
17 May 2021
Last updated
256 OctoberJuly 2023 — See all updates

Applies to England

YourBefore you can support an application, your child or partner must apply for student financefinance, thatwhich is based on household income.

Full-time undergraduate 2023 to 2024 applications are now open! If your child or partner hasn’t yet applied for student finance, you should encourage them to apply as soon as possible.

When the student applies, they’ll give us your email address so we can get in touch with you.

You should follow the instructions in the email to support their application online.online You- shoulddo givenot send us youra incomeP60. detailsYou should do this online as soon as possible. If you wait too long, the student might not get all their student finance for the start of their course.

Follow our three easy steps to support an application.

1. Sign in or create your student finance account

You’ll need to create youran ownaccount account,for if you don’t already have one.yourself.

Don’tDo not use the student’s account to givetell us your income details, you must use your own.own separate one. If you and your partner are supporting your child’s application, your partner will also need to create or sign in to their own online account.

If you’ve supported an application previously or you’ve applied for student finance in the past, you should sign into your existing online account. Don’t worry if you’ve forgotten your login details, you can reset them on the login page.

Sign in or create an account

2.

If Giveyou’re ussupporting youran incomeapplication details

Tothat supporthas analready application,been you’ll need:

approved
  • your

    If Nationalthe Insurancestudent number

  • yourhas incomeapplied details,late, suchwe asmay yourautomatically P60approve ortheir finalisedapplication self-assessmentfor taxthe return

You’llminimum needamount toof givestudent usfinance, yourso householdthey incomehave forsome themoney taxnear year:

  • 2021-22to ifthe you’restart supportingof atheir student’scourse. 2023This tomeans 2024you application
  • 2020-21may ifnot you’rebe supportingable ato student’slink 2022 to 2023the student’s application

Don’t sendthrough us a P60 instead of giving us your incomeonline details.

account.

If youthey dostill andwant weto haven’tapply asked for this,the ithigher willamount takeof usMaintenance longerLoan, toyou processshould theprovide student’syour application.household Thisincome meansdetails yourby childuploading ora partnerPFF2 mightform getto lessyour moneyonline thanaccount theyinstead:

What to do if you’ve not received an email from us

You should still be able to link to the student’s application and give us your details online by typing in their Customer Reference Number. Follow the instructions on our ‘how to’ guide for help supporting a student finance application with your household income.

If you’re unable to link to the student’s application online

Youonline, you can upload a form to your account instead:

2. Type in your income details

It helps to have a few things to hand before supporting an application:

  • your National Insurance number
  • your income details, such as your P60 or finalised self-assessment tax return

You’ll need to provide your household income for the tax year:

  • 2021-22 if you’re supporting a student’s 2023 to 2024 application
  • 2020-21 if you’re supporting a student’s 2022 to 2023 application

Do not send us a P60 instead of giving us your income details.

If you do and we haven’t requested one, it will take us longer to process the student’s application. This could result in your child or partner receiving less money than they were expecting at the start of their course.

Supporting more than one student

If you’re supporting more than one student, you only need to give us your income details once.

After you’ve submitted your details online for one student, you should click the link in the email we’ve sent to support the second student. We’ll apply your details to their application automatically.

If youyou’ve didn’tnot getgot an email for the second student you’re supporting, follow the steps in our ‘how to’ guide for help supporting a student finance application with your household income.

3. After you’ve supported the application

Once you’ve submitted your income details, it can take us 6-86 to 8 weeks to process them and work out how much the student can get. As soon as we’ve done this, we’ll let the student know.

If we need anything else from you,you, we’ll email you to let you know.

Your child or partner can sign in to their online account and check the progress of their application.

Check out our guidance for more information on supporting a student finance application or what to do if your income changes later in the year.

Further information

You usually don’t need to send us evidence of your household income as we check your details with HRMC. We may contact you to ask for evidence of your:

  • marital status – if you’re separated or divorced
  • income – if you’re living abroad or finalising your current year income assessment
Published

You 17should Mayonly 2021
Lastupload updatedyour 25evidence Octoberonce.

Uploading 2023 + showit allseveral updates

  1. Removeddelay informationyour onchild supportingor anpartner’s applicationstudent finance being calculated. We’ll contact the student if thistheir student finance entitlement has alreadychanged.

You beencan approved. Removedcheck furtherthe informationprogress sectionof asany coveredevidence onyou’ve linkedsubmitted page.by checking your online account.

Find out more about the types of evidence we can accept and how to send it.

Published 17 May 2021
Last updated 6 July 2023 + show all updates

  1. Added guidance for supporting more than one student.

  2. Added section for sponsors trying to link to application already approved

  3. Updating information and guidance to support updated supporting process for the academic year 2022 to 2023. This includes advise around evidence requirements.

  4. Updated guidance to provide more information on how to support an application.

  5. Reference to deadline removed as these have passed

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