Students: Grants

(asked on 23rd November 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to introduce a voucher subsidy scheme alongside maintenance grants to enable students to upgrade their devices if they are becoming outdated.


Answered by
Baroness Barran Portrait
Baroness Barran
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This question was answered on 6th December 2021

Students attending full-time undergraduate higher education courses and part-time degree level and equivalent courses can apply for loans as a contribution towards their living costs, including the costs of computers. All students qualify for a minimum loan for living costs with additional support for poorer students.

Students from the lowest income families have access to the largest ever amounts of living costs support in cash terms. Maximum loans for living costs have been increased by 3.1% for the current 2021/22 academic year, with a further 2.3% increase announced for the 2022/23 academic year.

In addition to the standard living costs package, many universities and colleges offer specific funds, bursaries, and scholarships for eligible students. Students experiencing financial hardship can contact their higher education provider. Many providers have hardship funds which students can apply to for assistance.

In the academic year 2020/21, we made £85 million of one-off student hardship funding available to higher education providers on top of the £256 million of Student Premium funding they were already able to draw on towards student hardship funds, including the purchase of IT equipment.

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