Maintenance grants will no longer be available to current or prospective students who access their funding though Student Finance England!
A maintenance grant is a non-repayable grant issued to full time undergraduate students to help cover living costs while at university.
On the 19th January 2016 it was debated in the House of Commons whether or not the maintenance grant should be ‘scrapped’. The final decision was made to cut maintenance grants for new students who will access their funding through Student Finance England. The government votes for and against were;
- all-UK MPs - 292 votes for and 306 against
- all-England MP’s - 203 votes for and 291 against
As a result of this, from the 1st August 2016 maintenance grants will no longer be available to prospective students from England who access their funding though Student Finance England. These maintenance grants will be replaced with loans for new students, loans that will only have to be paid back once you earn over £21,000 a year.