Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to reintroducing maintenance grants for the most disadvantaged students; and what plans they have to review the parental threshold for maximum loan support given the increased cost of living.

The government has no plans to reintroduce maintenance grants, as it believes that income-contingent student loans are a fair and sensible way of financing higher education (HE). It is only right that those who benefit from the system should make a fair contribution to its costs.

The switch from maintenance grants to loans in 2016 has not resulted in fewer people going into HE. In 2022 record numbers of 18-year-olds entered university, including those from disadvantaged backgrounds. An English 18-year-old from a disadvantaged background today is 86% more likely to go to university than they were in 2010.

Decisions on student finance have had to be taken alongside other spending priorities to ensure that the system remains financially sustainable and that the costs of HE are shared fairly between students and taxpayers, not all of whom have benefited from going to university.