Submitting your household income information in support of an application

Why we ask for your household income information

Some types of student finance can be based on your household income information.

Eligible students can get a basic rate of student finance without giving any household income information. However, if you choose to give us this information you could borrow more and, in some instances, get additional grants.

What you'll need

You'll need to know:

• your household's financial income
• details of your personal financial income

The household income is the combined income of:

• you
• your partner - if you live with them now (even if you weren't living with them during the previous tax year)
• your child (if you're supporting your child's application)

We'll ask for household income information from 2 tax years ago.

Example:

If the student is applying for the 2024 to 2025 academic year, we'll ask for income information from the 2022 - 2023 tax year (In the UK this is 6 April 2022 - 5 April 2023).

You'll be told which tax year information to provide when you're submitting the information.

When we'll ask for income information

As part of the student's application for finance we'll ask if they would like to have their funding based on their household income. If they do, the online application form will tell the student who needs to give this information and how to do it.

We'll ask the student to give an email address for each person who is required to give income information. We'll then email instructions to submit your information. We normally send the email within 24 hours of the student submitting their application. If you don't have an email address or the student didn't give one, we'll write to you and send you a form to complete and return to us.

What to do if you've not received an email from us

You should sign in to your own student finance account, or create a new one if you don't 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 student's application by typing in their Customer Reference Number.

Creating your own student finance account

The quickest and easiest way to support an application is online. In order to submit your information online, you'll need to create your own student finance account. This is linked to the student's account but is yours, not the student's.

You can use your account to provide household income details, check any outstanding actions, maintain your account information and apply for your own student finance.

Already have a student finance account?

If you've had student finance or provided financial information in support of an application in the past - you should already have an account and you should use this.

The student must provide the email address you have linked to your account.

Not able to support an application online?

If you're unable to support or link to the student's application online, you can complete a downloadable form instead. You can find the form you need on our form finder.

Sending evidence

We might ask you to provide evidence to prove your household income information. This could include your P60 or similar documentation. We'll tell you exactly what to send and where when you're providing your information.

What happens next?

Check you've told us everything - this can affect the student's eligibility and entitlement.

We'll only need to get back in touch with you if some information is missing or we need further evidence or clarification about your household income information.

Send us everything we ask for

The sooner you provide any evidence, the quicker we can let the student know about their funding.

Once we have everything we need

We'll assess the student's entitlement based on the provided information and send the student a Notification of Entitlement letter. This letter will explain what they can get and when they'll be paid.

If we haven't received your household income information close to the student's start date

We may continue with their application without this information. This would mean that they'll get a Notification of Entitlement letter showing less than they expected. It's just to make sure they have some funding in place for the start of their course.

We'll work out how much student finance they could get without taking their household income into account.

It may be that we get your information too close to the student's start date, or we haven't got it at all. If we have what we need, we'll reassess them as soon as we can, they'll get a new letter showing their full entitlement when we do. If we do not have the information, we'll reassess them as soon as it is provided.