GovWire

Before you can support an application, your child or partner must apply for student finance, which is based on household income. You will receive an email asking if you wish to support their application, follow these steps to support your child or partners student finance application.

If they apply late, well still process their application, but they might not get all their money in time for starting their course. This means they may have to cover any initial costs themselves.

1. Sign in or create your student finance account

When your child or partner applies for student finance which is based on household income, theyll give us your email address so we can send you a request to support their application. You should follow the instructions in the email to support their application online - do not send us a P60, unless we ask you for it.

If youre supporting an application for the first time and youve never applied for student finance

Youll need to create an online account for yourself.

Do not use the students account to tell us your income details, you must use your own separate one.If you and your partner are supporting your childs application, your partner will also need to create or sign in to their own online account.

If youve supported an application previously or youve applied for student finance in the past

Sign in to your existing online account. Dont worry if youve forgotten your log in details, you can reset them on the log in page.

If youre supporting an application that has already been approved

If the student has applied late, we may automatically approve the student for the minimum amount of student finance, to ensure they have some money for near the start of their course. This means you may not be able to link to the students application through your online account.

If they still want to apply for the higher amount of Maintenance Loan, you should provide your household income details by uploading a PFF2 form to your online account instead:

• PFF2 Assessment of financial circumstances for parents and partners of students form

If the student is owed any additional Maintenance Loan, well backdate the money from the start of the academic year and update their entitlement. Well make the additional payment soon after, so they dont need to wait until their next instalment date.

What to do if youve not received an email from us

You should sign in to your own online account, or create a new one if you dont already have an account. Then, scroll down and click the button that says Support an application for student finance.

You should be able to link to the students application by typing in their Customer Reference Number.

If youre unable to link to the students application online, you can upload a form to your account instead:

• PFF2 Assessment of financial circumstances for parents and partners of students form

2. Type in your income details

It helps to have a few things to hand before supporting an application:

• your National Insurance number
• your income details, such as your P60 or finalised self-assessment tax return

Youll need to provide your household income for the tax year:

• 2020-21 if youre supporting a students 2022 to 2023 application
• 2019-20 if youre supporting a students 2021 to 2022 application

3. After youve supported the application

Once youve submitted your income details, it can take us 6 to 8 weeks to process them and calculate your child or partners student finance. Dont worry if youve not heard from us right away!

Your child or partner can login to their online account and check the progress of their application using our new status tracker.

You usually dont need to send us evidence of your household income as we check your details with HRMC. We may contact you to ask for evidence of your:

• marital status if youre separated or divorced
• income if youre living abroad or finalising your current year income assessment

You can check the progress of any evidence youve submitted by checking your online account.

You can find out more about the types of evidence we can accept and how to send it by visiting our Evidence guidance page.

For more information on supporting a student finance application or if your income changes later in the year, visit our page on Gov.uk.