Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if her Department will make an assessment of the effect of the abolition of maintenance grants in 2016 on the (a) emotional and (b) financial wellbeing of students.

Students starting full-time courses in the 2016/17 Academic Year on the lowest incomes have benefited from an additional 10.3% of upfront living costs support when compared to the previous academic year. A full equality analysis of changes to higher education student finance for 2016/17, including the switch from maintenance grants to loans, was published on GOV.UK in November 2015. Higher Education Student Finance Equality Analysis