Students in England who want to make sure they have finance in place before the start of the new academic year are being urged to apply before the 24 May deadline.

The Student Loans Company (SLC) is asking new and returning students to submit their student finance applications to Student Finance England, before the approaching deadlines, to ensure their funding is in place before their studies begin.  New students should have their applications in by 24 May 2019 and the deadline for returning students is 21 June 2019.

Derek Ross, SLC’s Executive Director of Operations said:

 “Everyone wants to start their studies with their student finance in place and the best way to ensure this is the case is by getting your application in before the deadline dates.  It is easy to apply online now atwww.studentfinancewales.co.uk.”

Here’s six things you might not know about student finance

1.        You don’t need a confirmed place on a course to be able to apply for student finance – you can use your first choice of course and update your application later if this changes.

2.        You only start paying off your student loan once you are earning over the repayment threshold.  The annual threshold for plan 2 customers (those who started their course on or after 1 September 2012) is currently £25,000. You pay 9% of what you earn above the threshold.  Find out everything you need to know about repaying your student loan here: http://media.slc.co.uk/repayment/qsg/index.html

3.        Everyone is charged interest on their student loans.  Interest rates are set by the Government and the amount you repay depends on your repayment plan.  You are charged interest from the day your first payment is made until your loan is repaid in full.  Interest is added to the total amount you owe every month. Watch our film about understanding interest here: http://bit.ly/UnderstandingInterest

4.        If you choose to leave your course early without completing your studies, you will still be liable to repay your student loan.  

5.        You must tell SLC if you are travelling or living overseas.

6.        Student loans will be written off if you don’t repay within a certain amount of time.  If you are a student in England taking out a loan in 2019, this will be 30 years after you become eligible to repay. (You become eligible to repay the April after you leave study but repayments won’t start till you are earning above the threshold – see fact 2)

Student Finance England has more information on online student community forum, the student room  (www.thestudentroom.co.uk/student-finance)  This information is designed to help  new students and their parents find out everything they need to know about the application process.

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