Thinking of entering full-time higher education in 2010/2011

What’s in this presentation?

• Investing in your future with Student Finance Wales

• Tuition fees and fee loans• Other Financial help:

– Maintenance/ Living cost loans– Assembly Learning Grant– Special Support Grant– Bursaries

• Examples• The application process• Useful contacts

Investing in your futureIt’s worth spending some time finding out what support you are entitled too and applying for it:

To start, some key facts to keep in mind:

Student Loans (Fee loans and maintenance loans): These are provided by the Welsh Assembly Government at an interest rate linked toinflation so what you repay is equivalent to the amount you borrowed. You need to repay loans when you start earning £15,000 a year or more after graduation.

Grants:These are provided by the Welsh Assembly Government, and do NOT need to be paid back (unless you leave your course early). Grants are available for students from low income households or students with special circumstances.

Bursaries:These are provided by your ‘college’ and do NOT need to be paid back.

Student Finance Wales

Student finance services available to you now

depend upon where you live

If you normally live in Wales, you are entitled to

Student Finance Wales services, regardless of

where you choose to study in the UK

How much are mytuition fees?

If you choose to study in Wales or elsewhere in the UK in 2009/10 colleges can charge a tuition fee of up to £3,225 a year.

Figures for 2010/2011 will be confirmed within the next few months.

Can I get a loan to pay my fees?

Wherever you study in the UK you can apply for atuition fee loan so that:

• Your fees are paid directly to your place of study

• Your fee payment is ‘deferred’

You will need to repay your fee loan after you have left your course and are earning more than £15,000 a year

When you are studying a full-time

higher education course, you will

also need money to live on and to

pay for your books and equipment

There is financial help available to

MOST full-time students

What other financial help is available to me?

How do Student Loans work?

• Student Loans are available for living expenses (maintenance loans), and to cover what you have to pay towards tuition fees (tuition fee loans)

• Payable in instalments – Maintenance loans are paid at the start of each term

• Not commercial loans

• Provided by the Government. Interest rate linked to inflation – so the money you repay is the same in real terms as the money you borrowed

In addition to any tuition fee loan that you take out, you can also apply for a student loan to assist with your living costs (maintenance loan)

How much you can borrow depends on your household income, on your entitlement to the Assembly Learning Grant, and on where you are living

Student loans are repayable

The three rates of loan available are:

– Living at home rate– Living elsewhere rate– Living in London rate

How much can I borrow?

Maintenance Loans – Living Costs

Where a student is entitled to an Assembly Learning Grant of £1,288* or above, equating to a household income figure of up to £27,852* , the student is only entitled to apply for the minimum amount of the relevant loan rate payable.

*These are for 2009/2010. Figures for 2010/2011 will be confirmed shortly.

Rate of Loan

Living at Home rate £3,673*

Living Elsewhere rate £4,745*

Living in London rate £6,648*

Maintenance Loans – Living Costs

Applicable rate of student loan

Household income figure

Non-Means Tested loan available

Living at Home rate £48,303* £2,755*

Living Elsewhere rate £50,788* £3,559

Living in London rate £55,200* £4,986*

Where the household income is above the levels shown, an application should be made for Non Means-Tested Support Only. In these cases, it is only the student who has to complete the application form.

The rate of Non Means-Tested Support depends on where the applicant will be studying. For example, you will receive a higher rate of student loan if you are lodging in London than you would if you were living at home. The table above shows the relevant figures.

*These are for 2009/2010. Figures for 2010/2011 will be confirmed shortly.

Repayment of Student Loans• Your maintenance loan and your fee loan will be combined together

as one amount

• You don’t start paying anything back until you have left your course and are earning more than £15,000 a year

• Repayments are recovered at a rate of 9% of any income you receive above the £15,000 a year threshold

• Repayments are made automatically through the tax system

• How much you repay is determined by how much you earn

• From 2010/2011 new students who take out a maintenance loan will receive up to £1500 debt relief from Student Finance Wales once they start to repay their loan.

• From 2010/2011 an Assembly Learning Grant of up to £5,000 a year will be available to students from households with a lower income (the maximum award for 2009/2010 is £2,906)

• The amount of grant that you receive depends on your household income. If this is lower than £18,370* you willqualify for the maximum amount.

• The Assembly Learning Grant does not have to be repaid

*This figure is for 2009/2010. Figures for 2010/2011 will be confirmed shortly.

GrantsAssembly Learning Grant

In certain circumstances you may be eligible to claim the Special Support Grant instead of an Assembly Learning Grant e.g. if you are a lone parent, in receipt of incapacity benefit or a registered deaf or blind student.

This Special Support Grant will be for the same amount as the Assembly Learning Grant , but which will be disregarded as income by Jobcentre Plus

There is also no reduction in Maintenance Loan when the student is entitled to the Special Support Grant

Special Support Grant

Bursaries

If you are studying in Wales and eligible

for the maximum Assembly Learning

Grant, you will be eligible for a new

Welsh National Bursary of a minimum of

£319* a year

This core Welsh National Bursary is in

addition to scholarship or bursary

programmes run by individual universities

or colleges

Ask you college for details

*This figure is for 2009/2010. Figures for 2010/2011 will be confirmed shortly.

Specific Grants

There is extra help available for you if you have special circumstances such as:

• Disability – This is a grant to help provide non-medical equipment that you may need to enable you to study your course. This could be a special computer program for example.

• Children• Adult Dependants

Contact your Local Authority for further details.

How do I apply for student support?

Complete an application form• You need to get a form PN1 from your school,

college or LA. You can also apply online. Forms will be available this autumn.

• Fill this in with your parent(s) leaving no question unanswered.

• Send this form to your Local Authority, together with the documents that are required

• Your financial entitlement will be assessed by the Local Education Authority

• You will receive a ‘Financial Support Notification’, which lets you know the amount of support to which you are entitled

Or apply on-line

• You can also apply on-line at the Student Finance Wales website:

www.studentfinancewales.co.uk

At this website you can:

• Track the progress of their application• Calculate the amount of student finance that may be available• Calculate any household contribution that has to be made

The website also gives valuable advice on all aspects of student finance

What information will you need to provide on your application?

The PN1 form (and on-line application) includes questions about:

• Your current and previous residences• Your college and course details, including the UCAS codes• Confirmation of your likely unearned income for the period 1st September

2010 to 31st August 2011• Confirmation of your parents’ or step parent’s earned income for the

previous tax year, i.e: Financial year ending March 2009

On the form you will also need to:• Complete the maintenance and tuition fee loan request forms to inform the

Student Loans Company of the amounts you wish to borrow• You can apply for some, all or none of the loan at this stage and you can

change your mind later

What information will you need to provide on your application?

If you want to take out a loan complete the loan request form. If you miss out your bank account details or National Insurance Number no payments can be made

You also need to submit either your original Birth Certificate, current valid Passport or other endorsed paperwork. Photocopies are not

acceptable

Important: You must ensure that you have completed the form, in full, leaving no question unanswered and supplied the relevant certification as requested. If you have to be contacted for further information, this will delay the application process

This may mean that the first instalment of the student finance will not be paid on time, and that the tuition fees are not paid to the college

What happens next?

The fully completed PN1 form should then be sent, along with the

relevant certification, to the Local Authority – NOT theWelsh Assembly Government

Applications are dealt with on a date order basis, so please complete and submit your forms as soon as possible

ENSURE YOU PUT THE CORRECT POSTAGE ON THE ENVELOPE

The assessment procedure

Once the Local Authority has received the form, they will then enter and submit the details online to the Student Finance Wales website

The details entered are used to calculate if are any deductions from the maximum maintenance loan and ALG

All paperwork regarding the application will then be sent out directly by Student Finance Wales, including the Financial Support Notification

The assessment procedure

The Financial Support Notification informs the student of their entitlement to student finance. It confirms the student’s entitlement to Assembly Learning Grant and Student Loan

The notification will also show whether or not the student has applied for the Tuition Fee Loan and, if so, how much

Shortly before you are due to start college, Student Finance Wales will send a payment schedule letter detailing the date and method of payments

It is vitally important to contact the Student Finance Wales Contact Centre on 0845 602 8845 if any details change after submission of the PN1 form, such as change of course/college after ‘A’ level results etc

Useful Contacts

Website: www.studentfinancewales.co.uk

Telephone: 0845 602 8845(Mon–Fri 8am–8pm; Saturday 9am–1pm)

Or contact your Local Authority – their address is in the phone book or on the Student Finance Wales website