GovWire

Watch our film to find out why you shouldnt wait to apply.

Applying for student finance after the deadline

If you havent applied yet or youve just recently applied for your full-time undergraduate student finance, heres what needs to happen to make sure you have some funding in place for near the start of your course.

1. Applying for student finance

Its important to create an account or sign into your online account and apply as soon as possible, if you havent already.

Its quick and easy to apply online - it only takes 30 minutes with your:

• Passport details
• National Insurance number
• UK bank details

You dont need a confirmed place at uni or college to apply, you can apply now and update your details later if you need to.

2. Check your online account

You dont need to call us to track the progress of your application. Once youve applied for student finance, you can use your online account to:

• view our application status tracker

• check Your actions to complete

• upload evidence

• reset your password or secret answer

• update your personal details.

Watch our step-by-step tutorial on how to check the status of your application!

How to check the status of your application

Its quick and easy to use your Student Finance account, watch our other How to films for step-by-step tutorials.

If we need more information from you, a red banner will appear and your action status will show as incomplete. The banner will stay red until youve given us the information and it will turn green when all your actions have been completed.

3. Well sort out your initial funding

You may get a smaller amount to begin with but well update your entitlement and send you a top up payment as soon as we process your household income details. You can check your online account for an update.

If youre eligible for extra help

If youre eligible for any of the following it could take us longer to process your application:

• Childcare Grant
• Parents Learning Allowance
• Adult Dependants Grant
• Disabled Students Allowance

These will be awarded once weve processed your household income details.

You might need to self-fund things like childcare at the start of your course. Once your application has been approved, any extra funding will be backdated.

4. Well assess the rest of your application

Well then assess the household income details part of your application if youve applied for this this usually takes us 6 to 8 weeks.

If youre applying for a higher amount of student finance based on your household income, make sure to ask your parents or partner to provide their financial information as soon as possible to avoid delays to your application.

5. What you need to do to get your first payment

Youll need to register at your uni or college before your course starts, as we wont be able to pay you until you do. Once your uni or college tell us youve registered, well contact you a few days before your first payment to let you know its on its way.

You dont need to call us to check your payment date, sign in to your online account to view your payment schedule.

6. When your application is fully approved

Well send you another letter confirming your full entitlement amount. If youve already received a payment from us, well pay you the difference as soon as possible, and your second and third payment amounts will be updated too.

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