Maintenance Grant and Special Support Grant

If you’re continuing with a higher education course in 2011/2012, this page will help you work out how much you could get through the Maintenance Grant or Special Support Grant. It also gives you an idea of the total help you could get with living costs through the Maintenance Grant and Student Loan for Maintenance combined.

Continuing students in 2011/2012: will you get the full grant?

The maximum grant is £3,475. The full grant is available to students who are continuing with a full-time course in 2011/2012, and who have a household income of £19,203 or under.

Maintenance Grant: effect on other financial help

If you’re getting a higher level of Maintenance Grant, it’s assumed that you won’t need to borrow as much through the Student Loan for Maintenance. To reflect this, some of the Maintenance Grant is paid instead of the Student Loan for Maintenance.

This means that if you come from a lower income household, you’ll have a smaller loan to repay when you finish studying and start work.

You’ll be able to get 75 per cent of the maximum Student Loan for Maintenance available to you no matter what your household income is. Whether you get the remaining 25 per cent depends on an ‘income assessment’.

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Special Support Grant: effect on other financial help

Unlike the Maintenance Grant, the Special Support Grant doesn’t reduce the amount you can borrow through the Student Loan for Maintenance. Any money you get through the Special Support Grant won’t be counted as income when working out your entitlement to benefits or tax credits.

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• Maintenance Grant: help with living costs