Mentions:
1: Robert Halfon (Con - Harlow) Maximum grants for students with child or adult dependants who are attending full-time undergraduate - Speech Link
Jan. 26 2024
Source Page: Higher education student finance 2024 to 2025: equality analysisFound: and grants for living and other costs and postgraduate loans uplifted by 2.5%
Asked by: Whitfield, Martin (Scottish Labour - South Scotland)
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of students are currently in debt due to student loans.
Answered by Dey, Graeme - Minister for Higher and Further Education; and Minister for Veterans
The Scottish Government does not hold this information. The Student Loans Company (SLC) collects and publishes data on student loan outlays, repayments, and borrower activity for Scottish SLC customers each year.
Student Loans in Scotland: Financial Year 2022-23 (Table 3) provides (i) the number and (ii) the percentage of borrower who received loans as Scottish domiciled students studying in the UK or as EU domiciled students studying in Scotland by repayment status.
Note: These statistics only include information on loan products and do not include information regarding grants and bursaries which make up part of the student support package offered to students in Scotland.
Asked by: Whitfield, Martin (Scottish Labour - South Scotland)
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what the total value is of student debt accumulated between 2007 and 2024, broken down by year.
Answered by Dey, Graeme - Minister for Higher and Further Education; and Minister for Veterans
The Scottish Government does not hold this information . The Student Loans Company (SLC) collects and publishes data on student loan outlays, repayments, and borrower activity for Scottish SLC customers each year.
Student Loans in Scotland: Financial Year 2022-23 (Table 1 ) provides the Total amount of Income Contingent Repayment Loan outstanding (including loans not yet due for repayment) at the start of the financial year, including interest, of borrower who received loans as Scottish domiciled students studying in the UK or as EU domiciled students studying in Scotland.
Note: These statistics only include information on loan products and do not include information regarding grants and bursaries which make up part of the student support package offered to students in Scotland.
Mar. 20 2009
Source Page: Table showing the number of students in receipt of full, partial or no maintenance grant from each award authority in England for each tear from 2007/08 to 2008/09, broken down by award authority. 9 p.Found: Table showing the number of students in receipt of full, partial or no maintenance grant from each award
Mentions:
1: Baroness Barran (Con - Life peer) that under the new plan 5 loans 61% of new full-time borrowers will repay their loans in full, with - Speech Link
2: Lord Alton of Liverpool (XB - Life peer) look instead at the Scottish model and also at the position of EU students on pre-settled and settled - Speech Link
3: Baroness Barran (Con - Life peer) We have continued to increase the maximum loans and grants for living costs each year, with the most - Speech Link
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of introducing non-repayable maintenance grants for higher education students from the least advantaged backgrounds.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
The government believes that income-contingent student loans are a fair and sensible way of financing higher education. It is only right that those who benefit from the system should make a fair contribution to its costs. The department has continued to increase maximum loans and grants for living and other costs for undergraduate and postgraduate students each year with a 2.8% increase for the current 2023/24 academic year and a further 2.5% increase announced for the 2024/25 academic year.
In addition, the department has frozen maximum tuition fees for the 2023/24 and 2024/25 academic years. By 2024/25, maximum fees will have been frozen for seven successive years. The department believes that the current fee freeze achieves the best balance between ensuring that the system remains financially sustainable, offering good value for the taxpayer and reducing debt levels for students in real terms.
The government understands the pressures people have been facing with the cost of living and has taken action to help. The department has already made £276 million of student premium and mental health funding available for the 2023/24 academic year to support successful outcomes for students, including disadvantaged students. The department has also made a further £10 million of one-off support available to help student mental health and hardship funding for the 2023/24 academic year. This funding will complement the help universities are providing through their own bursary, scholarship and hardship support schemes. For the 2024/25 financial year the department has increased the Student Premium, including the full-time, part-time and disabled premium, by £5 million to reflect high demand for hardship support. Further details of this allocation for the 2024/25 academic year will be announced by the Office for Students (OfS) in the summer.
Overall, support to households to help with the high cost of living is worth £108 billion over 2022/23 to 2024/25, which is an average of £3,800 per UK household. The department believes this will have eased the pressure on family budgets and so will in turn enable many families to provide additional support to their children in higher education to help them meet increased living costs.
Asked by: Rosie Duffield (Labour - Canterbury)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing non-repayable maintenance grants for higher education students from the least advantaged backgrounds.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
The government 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 government have continued to increase maximum loans and grants for living and other costs for undergraduate and postgraduate students each year, with a 2.8% increase for the 2023/24 academic year and a further 2.5% increase announced for 2024/25.
In addition, the government have frozen maximum tuition fees for the 2023/24 and 2024/25 academic years. By 2024/25, maximum fees will have been frozen for seven successive years. The department believe that the current fee freeze achieves the best balance between ensuring that the system remains financially sustainable, offering good value for the taxpayer, and reducing debt levels for students in real terms.
The government understands the pressures people have been facing with the cost of living and has taken action to help. The government have already made £276 million of student premium and mental health funding available for the 2023/24 academic year to support successful outcomes for students including disadvantaged students.
The government have also made a further £10 million of support available to help student mental health and hardship funding for the 2023/24 academic year. This funding will complement the help universities are providing through their own bursary, scholarship and hardship support schemes. For the 2024/25 financial year, the government have increased the Student Premium (full-time, part-time, and disabled premium) by £5 million to reflect high demand for hardship support. Further details of this allocation for the academic year 2024/25 will be announced by the Office for Students in the summer.
Overall, support to households to help with the high cost of living is worth £108 billion over 2022/23 to 2024/25, which is an average of £3,800 per UK household. The government believes this will have eased the pressure on family budgets, which will in turn enable many families to provide additional support to their children in HE to help them meet increased living costs.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has had discussions with the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology on the potential merits of extending childcare grants to postgraduate research students.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Through the student loans company, the department offers a specific Childcare Grant (CCG) to support students with the costs of childcare whilst they are in study, which totals around £202 million per year.
The CCG offers parents support of up to 85% of their childcare costs up to a maximum of £183.75 a week for one child and £315.03 for two children.
CCG support is provided to individuals where both parents are students, the student is a lone parent, or the student parent’s partner is on a low income.
The government has no plans to extend CCG to postgraduate research students.
The government introduced new support packages for students starting postgraduate master’s degree courses from the 2016/17 academic year onwards and postgraduate doctoral degree courses from 2018/19 onwards.
These loans are not based on income and are intended as a contribution to the cost of study. They can be used by students according to their personal circumstances to cover the costs of fees and living costs including childcare. The new support packages have provided a significant uplift in support for postgraduate students while ensuring the student support system remains financially sustainable.
Students studying on postgraduate courses can apply for loans towards their course fees and living costs of up to £12,167 in 2023/24 for new students undertaking postgraduate master’s degree courses, and up to £28,673 in 2023/24 for new students undertaking postgraduate doctoral degree courses.
As postgraduate stipends are not classified as income for tax purposes by HMRC, meaning that neither PhD students nor their university pay Income Tax or National Insurance Contributions on their stipend, stipends are therefore not counted as income from work. However, it remains the case that students are eligible for universal 15 hours childcare, which is available to all 3 and 4 yearolds, regardless of family circumstances and/or income.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to extend childcare grants to postgraduate research students.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Through the student loans company, the department offers a specific Childcare Grant (CCG) to support students with the costs of childcare whilst they are in study, which totals around £202 million per year.
The CCG offers parents support of up to 85% of their childcare costs up to a maximum of £183.75 a week for one child and £315.03 for two children.
CCG support is provided to individuals where both parents are students, the student is a lone parent, or the student parent’s partner is on a low income.
The government has no plans to extend CCG to postgraduate research students.
The government introduced new support packages for students starting postgraduate master’s degree courses from the 2016/17 academic year onwards and postgraduate doctoral degree courses from 2018/19 onwards.
These loans are not based on income and are intended as a contribution to the cost of study. They can be used by students according to their personal circumstances to cover the costs of fees and living costs including childcare. The new support packages have provided a significant uplift in support for postgraduate students while ensuring the student support system remains financially sustainable.
Students studying on postgraduate courses can apply for loans towards their course fees and living costs of up to £12,167 in 2023/24 for new students undertaking postgraduate master’s degree courses, and up to £28,673 in 2023/24 for new students undertaking postgraduate doctoral degree courses.
As postgraduate stipends are not classified as income for tax purposes by HMRC, meaning that neither PhD students nor their university pay Income Tax or National Insurance Contributions on their stipend, stipends are therefore not counted as income from work. However, it remains the case that students are eligible for universal 15 hours childcare, which is available to all 3 and 4 yearolds, regardless of family circumstances and/or income.