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Before you can support an application, your child or partner must apply for student finance, which is based on household income.

When the student applies, theyll give us your email address so we can get in touch with you.

1. Sign in or create your student finance account

Youll need to create an account for yourself.

If youve supported an application previously or youve applied for student finance in the past, you should sign into your existing online account. Dont worry if youve forgotten your login details, you can reset them on the login page.

Sign in or create an account

If youre supporting an application that has already been approved

If the student has applied late, we may automatically approve their application for the minimum amount of student finance, so they have some money near to 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

What to do if youve not received an email from us

You should still be able to link to the students application and give us your details online by typing in their Customer Reference Number. Follow the instructions on our how to guide for help supporting a student finance application with your household income.

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:

• 2021-22 if youre supporting a students 2023 to 2024 application
• 2020-21 if youre supporting a students 2022 to 2023 application

Supporting more than one student

If youre supporting more than one student, you only need to give us your income details once.

After youve submitted your details online for one student, you should click the link in the email weve sent to support the second student. Well apply your details to their application automatically.

If youve not got an email for the second student youre supporting, follow the steps in our how to guide for help supporting a student finance application with your household income.

3. After youve supported the application

Once youve submitted your income details, it can take us 6 to 8 weeks to process them and work out how much the student can get. As soon as weve done this, well let the student know.

If we need anything else from you, well email you to let you know.

Your child or partner can sign in to their online account and check the progress of their application.

Check out our guidance for more information on supporting a student finance application or what to do if your income changes later in the year.

Further information

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.

Find out more about the types of evidence we can accept and how to send it.