Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Written Statement of 26 April 2016, HCWS701, what estimate he has made of the number of students affected by the proposed changes to eligibility to student support for people with long residency in the UK.

We estimated at the time of proposing the changes that they could lead to an additional 2,400 claims for student support in the first year after the changes take effect. This estimate was derived from information on those people who had non-asylum discretionary leave to remain and had applied for student support. However, we do not have information on the length of time these individuals have been in the UK or their age. It is therefore not possible to determine exactly how many of these individuals would meet the criteria in the new rules.