Did you know that you may be eligible for Student Finance Support towards the cost of attending college?
If you are on an eligible further education course and your household income is less than £35,000* GROSS, we may be able to help you with funding towards the cost of travel to college (you will need to live 1.5 miles or more away from your college campus), equipment, meal support and childcare.
*This can increase by £1,000 for each additional dependent child you have aged under 20 living in your home.
How to apply
Applying for Student Finance
The application portal for students to apply for Student Finance is now open for the 2024/25 academic year.
- Log into your College account (using the same username and password details when you applied for a course). If you can’t remember your login details, you can recover your account details.
- Look for the “Apply for Student Financial Support” button on your account dashboard once you’ve logged in and use this button to apply.
- You will be asked to upload your household income evidence. Please read our guide to Student Finance Income Evidence to find out which evidence you will need to upload when you apply for Student Finance. We have included images for each scenario so you can see what we need to look at to assess your application. The address on the Income Evidence you provide must match your home address on your student records. If you are claiming Universal Credit, you can view our guide to Universal Credit Evidence to ensure you are uploading the correct evidence. Please have your evidence ready before you start your application, although you can save and go back in to complete your application later if you need to you. If you are a 16 – 18 progressing student, you will not need to upload new evidence for 2024/25.
- We will ask you to complete a series of questions using drop down answer options regarding your household situation, and support needs such as travel or childcare costs you will be asked to agree to the terms and conditions, please read these carefully.
- Once you have reviewed and checked everything click complete and your application will be submitted to us.
- We will then contact you via the e mail address you have given as your personal email address at the time of applying or enrolling.
Important Information
- Please ensure you have submitted the correct evidence to avoid any delays in processing. Please note your application will not be looked at if you have not provided your household income evidence.
- Before we can process your application, you will need to be fully enrolled.
- Forms will be assessed in date received order subject to funding.
If you haven’t created an account to apply for a course yet, the student finance application section steps above can be completed at the same time that you create your account and apply for a course.
After your application has been processed
- Once your application has been processed, you will be contacted regarding the outcome on what support will be provided should your application be successful. You will need to keep your email and contact numbers up to date as our preferred option of communication will be email and text.
We aim to process applications as quickly as possible after you are fully enrolled. Please wait for us to contact you via email so that we can have all our staff focussed on completing the assessments.
Travel Pass eligibility
Using our Travel Pass Checker app, you can put in the postcode where you live and select the campus you would be or are currently studying at. The app will calculate the distance for travelling and let you know if you would be eligible.
Free College Meals for 16–18-year-olds
If you received Free School Meals at school, you should be entitled to them at college.
The Government support for Free College Meals is £2.53 per timetabled day. As a college, we may decide to increase this level of support for eligible students.
Currently we are not provided with the information from the Local Councils or DWP. We are working towards putting in place a data share arrangement with Nottingham City and County Councils. However, until this is in place or live outside of these areas you will need to apply and provide evidence to show your entitlement to Free College Meals.
Eligible benefits for Free College Meals
- Income Support
- Income-based Jobseekers Allowance
- Income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)
- Support under part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
- Child Tax Credit (provided they are not entitled to Working Tax Credit and have an annual gross income of no more than £16,190, as assessed by HMRC
- Working Tax Credit run-on – paid for 4 weeks after someone stops qualifying for Working Tax Credit.
- UC with net earnings not exceeding the equivalent of £7,400 pa (after tax and not including any benefits you get)
Meal Support in College
There are no legal requirements to offer food to non-Free College Meal students. However, where budgets permit, we may offer some support towards food in college
Childcare Funding
Funding may be available for your children to have a place at our nursery, Once Upon a Time, based at the Adams Building campus or with an Ofsted registered external provider such as an after-school club or breakfast club, childminder, or nursery.
Student Finance Support Funding Guidance
