2. Submitting household income information

As part of your application we could ask you, your parents or your partner to give household income information. If we ask for it, it's because you may be eligible for more student finance.

Parent or partner of a student?

We've created a guide specifically for parents and partners of students who have been asked to submit their household income information.

Why we ask for household income information

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

Eligible students are able to receive a basic rate of student finance without providing any household income information. However, if you choose to provide this information you could borrow more and, in some instances, receive additional grants.

When we'll ask for this

Step 1 - As part of your application you'll tell us what finances you'd like to apply for. If that finance has the option of being based on your household income information you'll be asked if you would like to give this information.

Step 2 - If you do, we'll ask for more details about your current living arrangements. Based on this information we'll ask for income information from you, your parents or your partner.

Step 3 - You'll be asked to provide contact information for your parents or partner. We'll contact them directly with instructions to submit their income information.

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 you're applying for the 2023 to 2024 academic year, we'll ask for income information from the 2021 to 2022 tax year (In the UK this runs from 6 April 2021 to 5 April 2022).

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

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

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

We'll work out how much student finance you could get without taking your household income into account. This makes sure you have some money ready for the start of your course.

Check with your parents or partner - it may be that it was received too close to your start date, or we haven't received it at all. If we have what we need, we'll reassess you as soon as we can, you'll get a new letter showing your full entitlement when we do. If we don't have the information, we'll reassess you as soon as it is provided.