This information applies to you if you are a Further Education student aged 19 or over on the 31st August 2024.
If you are aged 19 and are continuing in year 2 of a two-year course you started in 2023/24, or you are aged 19 – 24 and have an EHCP, please click here.
- Discretionary bursary: Take Home Household Income of less than £28,000 per annum
- Advanced Learner Loan Bursary Fund: Take Home Household Income of less than £28,000 per annum
If you have been referred by your Job Centre to do your chosen course, you should apply to your Job Centre for help first. It is your responsibility to inform the Department for Work and Pensions about any awards we give you, as they may affect your benefits.
How Will You Be Assessed?
- Travel: Travel payments are calculated by the cheapest route, using any available student fare card. We will reimburse the cost of any fare card we determine you need but only once. (Please see our useful links for available fare cards). Weekly travel payments will be up to £40 per week depending on your actual costs by the cheapest route.
- Protective Personal Clothing, Kit, Uniform, Books and Trips: The teaching team will confirm any items or trips essential for your course. We will not consider support for any non-essential items. We will decide if it’s more appropriate to buy or lend you equipment. If you withdraw for whatever reason or do not have satisfactory attendance, progress and behaviour you may be asked to repay part of the cost of any items provided to you, or to return the items. The amount to be repayable will be determined by the College.
- University open days and interviews: All applications are considered on a case by case basis. We will look to make a contribution if there are sufficient funds available. Any contribution that we make must be agreed before you attend the open day or interview, we will not consider retrospective claims.
- Meals: Full-time students only may receive two discretionary meals from the college if sufficient funds are available. Meals will be allocated on a term by term basis.
- Childcare: If you are 20 years old or over you can apply for help towards the cost of registered childcare for the days/hours you are timetabled in classes. Parents are expected to use any Nursery Education Grant before we calculate our contribution. You will need to provide written confirmation from your provider of your childcare arrangements, your child’s birth certificate or child benefit letter.
How Will You Be Paid?
- Travel is paid weekly, in arrears, direct to your bank account, subject to you meeting the required attendance. We will only pay travel to those who have at least 85% attendance overall or who have a minimum of 85% attendance in the previous week (unless you are registered as a young carer where we will adjust the attendance criteria to 75%). If you are absent for a whole week you will not be eligible for a payment, no matter what the circumstances are. There may be some instances where you have been granted an authorised absence and payment may still be made subject to confirmation from your Personal Development Coach and following the College’s absence process. We do not expect this to happen regularly. We will reimburse you once for any relevant fare cards needed to enable you to access the cheapest travel. You may be asked to provide receipts for proof of your journey. Please see the weekly payment calendar here.
- Protective Personal Clothing, Kit, Uniform, Books and Trips: If you buy the items yourself we will reimburse you if you provide a receipt. Alternatively we can transfer the money to your department to purchase the items for you. Please remember we will only provide support towards costs and amounts that the teaching team has confirmed to us, so please check before you pay for anything yourself. Any costs applied for that are not claimed in the term that you apply will be cancelled.
- University Interview and Open Days: We will reimburse direct to your bank account the agreed contribution subject to receipts.
- Discretionary Meals (full-time students only): Two free meals a day can be accessed via your Nescot ID card for the days that you are required to attend classes on site. You can have your free meals in any of the on site catering facilities. Please see the information on our website to confirm the meals that you can have and when. The college will review the two-meals-a-day allowance on a termly basis and will inform you if the allowance will reduce to one meal.
Please let us know before you go on any work placement or trips so that we can make alternative arrangements, but note that any contribution agreed for work placement can only be paid on production of a signed placement timesheet, or confirmation via the college's online placement system, which must be provided to Student Finance on a weekly basis.
- Childcare Invoices must be emailed to studentfinance@nescot.ac.uk before any childcare payments can be paid. Payments are paid directly to the childcare provider, on the last Friday of each month. Our contribution towards childcare will be capped at £195 per week per student. We can pay deposits of up to £250 per student but this will be deducted from the first payment (and second/third month if necessary). The deposit cannot be offset against final weeks’ payments. Registration fees of up to £80 per student can be paid.
Finance Team Contact Details
Please phone Sheila Gallagher on 020 8394 1181 or Sharon Greenwood on 020 8394 3033 for further details, or email studentfinance@nescot.ac.uk