Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he has made a recent assessment of the potential impact of the rising cost of transport on students who commute.

Up-front loans are available as a contribution towards undergraduate students’ living costs including transport costs while attending university with the most support available for students from the lowest income backgrounds. Additional support is available as a means-tested travel grant for students attending clinical placements that are part of their courses in medicine and dentistry. Students who are obliged to incur additional spending while studying as a result of a disability can apply for non-means-tested disabled students’ allowance to meet their additional travel costs.

Maximum grants and loans for living costs were increased by 3.1% this academic year 2021/22 and we have announced that they will increase by a further 2.3% in 2022/23. In addition, we are freezing maximum tuition fees for the 2022/23, 2023/24 and 2024/25 academic years. By 2024/25, maximum fees will have been frozen for seven years.

In our guidance to the Office for Students (OfS) on funding for the 2021/22 financial year we made clear that the OfS should protect the £256 million allocation for the student premiums to support disadvantaged students and those that need additional help. The 2022/23 financial year guidance to the OfS confirms universities will continue to be able to support students in hardship through the student premium. Ministers’ Strategic Priorities Grant guidance letter to the OfS asks that the OfS looks to protect the student premium in cash terms for 2022/23.

Alongside this, the government is also making available discretionary funding of £144 million to support vulnerable people and individuals on low incomes, including students, to support those ineligible for council tax.