Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the impact of delays to decisions on Leave to Remain or Indefinite Leave to Remain on applications for student finance.

Generally, to be eligible for student support, a student must be ordinarily resident in England and ‘settled’ in the UK on the first day of the first academic year of the course and must have been ordinarily resident in the UK and Islands (Channel Islands and the Isle of Man) for the 3 years prior to that date.

Settled status is granted by my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for the Home Department, and, once confirmation of that status is received, and, if necessary checked with the Home Office, Student Finance England is able to assess whether the student is eligible for student support. In general, Student Finance England will endeavour to reach a decision on an application within 30 days of all relevant information being submitted by the student.