Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government, in the light of the anticipated £5 million cost of further education maintenance grants for years 2029 to 2030 and 2030 to 2031, set out in Budget 2025: Policy Costings, published on 26 November, how many students they expect to receive the grants for each of these years; and what the average cost of each maintenance grant will be.

The government will introduce means-tested maintenance grants of up to £1,000 per year for students studying courses aligned with the government's missions and the Industrial Strategy. The grants will be available to new and continuing students from the 2028/29 academic year onwards, and will be paid in addition to maintenance loans, increasing the financial support available to the most disadvantaged students without increasing their debt.

The costing for the policy published at Autumn Budget 2025 sets out the forecast increase in annually managed expenditure on student loans resulting from the assumed behavioural response from the introduction of maintenance grants, in the form of increased participation. The estimate can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/692872fd2a37784b16ecf676/Budget_2025-Policy_Costings.pdf

A full equality impact assessment of how the introduction of maintenance grants may affect students will be published alongside the legislation necessary to introduce the grants in advance of their introduction.