Student's information

Q1: Will SLC provide the maintenance loan / grant overpayment amount for each student?

A: We’re unable to share student Maintenance Loan and grant data due to data protection laws. Students will have now received their new notification of entitlement. This will show their full entitlement reinstated, removing any overpayment.

Q2: Will students receive a detailed breakdown of how their overpayment has been calculated and how it will impact their remaining instalments?

A: DfE has instructed that this is not applicable as students will no longer have a loan overpayment.

Q3: How should providers advise students to contact SLC?

A: Through normal student contact channels.

Q4: Please can you advise whether SLC staff who are taking queries from affected students phoning the helpline are aware that universities cannot submit any CoCs for students until after the 6 April as per your comms? It appears that this is not the case, as we have had students requesting this information to be uploaded today as SLC advised this is possible, and updates will happen within 7 working days.

A: Yes, they are aware and a further reminder has been issued to all contact staff.

Q5: Will Childcare Grant be taken from a future maintenance loan? Or would it be deducted from a future childcare grant?

A: No Childcare Grant overpayment would not be deducted from any future loan entitlement. Childcare Grant is excluded from in-course recovery and will move to ‘out of course’ recovery, meaning any future entitlement for the AY will be left in place.

Q6: Are students who attend distance learning due to their disability, even if at the weekend, impacted by this? 

A: As these courses were previously incorrectly classified as ‘in-attendance’ we don’t expect any students on them will have applied under this condition.

Generally (although there may be some exceptions dependent on a student’s condition), students who are or were able to attend in-person, and on the weekend would not qualify for this exception. This is because the exception is for students with a disability who are undertaking a distance learning course because they are unable to attend a course in-person for a reason which relates to their disability. Students who are able to attend a course in-person should not apply via this exception.

Q7: Are university bursaries, including those paid through the Bursary Administration Service (BAS), affected or subject to recovery alongside maintenance loans and grants?

A: No, university bursaries are not affected and are not being recovered.

Bursary awards paid through the Bursary Administration Service are funded by the higher education providers (HEPs) themselves, with payments administered by us. It is therefore for each provider to determine any changes to eligibility. We will not take any action to recover or request repayment of these bursaries.

Q8: SFW funded students who attend regular in-person teaching at the weekend only as distance learning students, do we need to create a course with the Distance Learning indicator?

A: To correct these courses to reflect the distance learning flag, you will need to set up a new course indicating the distance learning attribute. You will then need to transfer your students to this course. Welsh students are entitled to full support on distance learning courses, so this will not affect their entitlement.

Q9: Will payments be pro-rated for students moving to in attendance from the date they transferred?

A: DfE has instructed that any student who has moved or is moving onto an eligible “in attendance” course, be paid the amount originally advised on their Notice of Entitlement.

Q10: How will students be kept informed and when will they receive their next payment?

A: We will continue to keep students informed of any updates and next steps. Providers should also keep their students updated.