GovWire

As universities and colleges across the UK prepare for the new academic year, next week SLC will be starting to make first term Maintenance Loan payments.

At SLC, our mission is to enable people to invest in their futures through further and higher education by providing trusted, transparent, flexible and accessible student finance services. We know how exciting this time of year can be for new and returning students and understand that they have a lot going on from moving away from home, preparing for their first weeks, and of course, planning their finance. We aim to make the payment process as simple as possible, so that it is one less thing for them to worry about.

We have already started emailing students to let them know what they need to do to get ready for payment.

I am really proud of the support that we provide to our students, and we currently have over one million applications processed and ready to pay. We are also continuing to process applications that we received after the deadline. In total, we expect to pay more than 2billion in Maintenance Loan payments throughout the autumn months, and as we head into September, I wanted to share my top five tips for students starting or returning to university.

1. The online account. Everything students need to know is in their online account. This includes the stage of the application, especially if they applied after the deadline, and, if they are eligible and the application is approved, what date a payment is due. Students should check their online account first before they do anything else.
2. Payment communication. If students are due to receive a payment, they will receive an email from us explaining how they can help ensure that the payment process is as seamless as possible. The email includes simple tips like making sure their bank details are up to date as well as a reminder that we can only release funding once they have registered with their university or college.
3. Registration Confirmation. We cant make payments to students until the university or college confirm that they have registered/enrolled. Students will be invited to do this by their university or college closer to the course start date. Once we have this information, we will send a text message to students a few days before the expected payment date to let them know that their Maintenance Loan is on the way.
4. Application process. Not all students will get their full entitlement all at once. It can take six to eight weeks to process a student finance application, which means that if they applied late or during Clearing (after our application deadlines), we may not have their application fully processed by term start. Our priority is to ensure that all eligible applicants have some money in place by awarding the minimum Maintenance Loan amount first, followed by a top-up payment if students are entitled to more funding.
5. Got questions? There is plenty of information, common questions, videos and much more on our website and social media channels to help students navigate their student finance journey. Our contact channels are extremely busy so I would urge students to check-out these options in the first instance.

This is our busiest time of year, and we are all focused on ensuring that students receive their payments as universities and colleges return. Its a key milestone for our organisation, as we fulfil our role to support students to invest in their future.

So, on behalf of everyone at SLC, I would like to send everyone our best wishes fo

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