Guidance

Residential Support Scheme guidance: 2024 to 2025 academic year

Published 27 March 2024

Applies to England

1. Summary

The Residential Support Scheme (RSS) is designed for the exceptional situations where the same or a similar substantial level 2 or level 3 qualification that a student wishes to study cannot be accessed locally. Most students supported by RSS tend to live in rural areas and have limited access to a wide range of 16 to 19 further education provision.

Institutions are responsible for assessing if a student meets the eligibility criteria for the scheme, as set out in this guidance, using an RSS application form they have developed. This includes assessing the student against the nationally set household income scales and verifying with us whether each student’s substantial level 2 or level 3 qualification is eligible.

Institutions cannot confirm to any student whether they are eligible for RSS, or make any RSS payments, until all the eligibility checks have been completed.

ESFA requires institutions to complete a short data/management information return each October to confirm the number of students who received RSS and the amount of funding spent during the previous academic year. The requirement to submit information for audit and reconciliation and to support allocation processes forms part of funding agreements.

References to ‘we’ or ‘us’ below are to Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA). Where we refer to ‘you’, this means education institutions (colleges, schools, academies, for example).

2. Eligibility criteria

To be eligible for RSS in the 2024 to 2025 academic year, a student must meet all the criteria:

2.1 Age

Students must be aged 16 or over but under 19 on 31 August 2024.

Students aged 19 or over are eligible for RSS if they are continuing on a study programme that they began aged 16 to 18 (‘19+ continuers’) or have an education, health and care plan.

2.2 Residency

Students must meet the residency criteria in our funding regulations for post-16 provision. Our regulations specify the evidence institutions must see and retain to confirm eligibility and for audit purposes.

2.3 Household income

RSS has a household income criterion. A household is defined as the student and the adults they live with who are mainly responsible for them. The household income must be £30,993 or less in the previous tax year for the student to be eligible. For the 2024 to 2025 academic year, this is the 2023 to 2024 tax year.

The amount of RSS a student is awarded is based on an income assessment that uses the following thresholds:

Table 1: RSS income assessment thresholds

Household income	Up to £21,000	£21,000 to £25,704	£25,705 to £30,993	£30,994 and over
Maximum RSS award (outside London)	£3,458	£2,305	£1,152	zero
Maximum RSS award (inside London)	£4,079	£2,685	£1,355	zero

The following London Boroughs are eligible for the London weighting:

• Barking and Dagenham
• Barnet
• Bexley
• Brent
• Bromley
• Camden
• Croydon
• Ealing
• Enfield
• Greenwich
• Hackney and City of London
• Hammersmith and Fulham
• Haringey
• Harrow
• Havering
• Hillingdon
• Hounslow
• Islington
• Kensington and Chelsea
• Kingston-upon-Thames
• Lambeth
• Lewisham
• Merton
• Newham
• Redbridge
• Richmond-upon-Thames
• Southwark
• Sutton
• Tower Hamlets
• Waltham Forest
• Wandsworth and Westminster

The amount of RSS shown in the table is the maximum available for each income bracket. Students should be awarded the actual cost of their accommodation if it is less than the maximum. If the study programme lasts for less than one year, the RSS award will be on a proportional basis.

Students cannot receive RSS if they are receiving housing benefit.

2.4 Eligible education provision

Students must have a place on a full-time study programme including either a first full level 2 or first full level 3 substantial qualification(s). The programme must be 16 to 19 funded directly by us.

Institutions should refer to the funding regulations for more detail about programme funding.

Study programmes delivered by institutions that have a subcontracting relationship with an ESFA funded institution are not generally eligible for RSS funding. Institutions should refer to the subcontracting funding rules. Any institution that has a subcontracting agreement would need to discuss RSS eligibility with the ESFA funded institution. It is the ESFA funded institution’s responsibility to manage all aspects of the RSS eligibility process, including submitting any course verification request to us.

The full level 2 or full level 3 substantial qualification should normally be the student’s first qualification at that level. In exceptional circumstances, RSS may be available to students undertaking additional qualifications at the same level they already hold. For example, if a student:

• wishes to study a second level 2 qualification which is vocational, and their first level 2 was an academic qualification
• holds a level 2 qualification but is required by their study programme to study for a further specific level 2 to access the necessary level 3 element of the programme
• is planning to enter higher education and a second level 3 qualification is specified as part of the entry requirement

It is the institution’s responsibility to determine where exceptions to the first full level 2 or first full level 3 substantial qualification criteria are appropriate. Any support must be a genuine exception, and we do not expect RSS to be used for this purpose on a routine basis. Institutions should refer to us if they have any doubts about individual cases.

2.5 Substantial qualification which is not available within reasonable daily travelling distance

To be eligible for RSS, a student must not be able to access the same or similar substantial level 2 or level 3 qualification within reasonable daily travelling distance of their home address.

The substantial ESFA funded qualification is key for RSS eligibility. The study programme as a whole, or the combination of different modules within it, is not considered as part of the assessment of eligibility. If a student can access the same or similar substantial qualification within daily travelling distance of their home, they will not be eligible for RSS.

It is important that institutions understand that only the substantial ESFA funded qualification is considered for RSS. Institutions should not encourage applications from students based on additional activity (such as participating in a specific sport) as we will reject them.

We define reasonable daily travelling distance as a daily return journey that takes 2 hours or less on public transport; or a distance of under 15 miles from the student’s home to the institution.

3. Application process

Students apply for RSS directly from their chosen institution.

Institutions have their own application forms for students to complete for RSS funding. All application forms you use must include all the information required to assess if students meet the eligibility requirements for the scheme.

It is important for audit purposes that the student and responsible adult(s) sign and date the RSS application form.

You must ensure you obtain evidence of the student’s term-time accommodation arrangements, for example a copy of the student’s tenancy agreement. The tenancy agreement (or other evidence accepted by the institution) must have been agreed and signed by the student. It must include the following information:

• the student’s name
• the student’s term time address
• the dates of the tenancy
• the cost of the rent
• the landlord’s name, address and signature (the landlord cannot be related to the student)

The student’s term-time lodgings must be no further than 15 miles from their campus.

Institutions must not release any RSS payments until all the required information and evidence has been provided and the application has been fully assessed. This includes obtaining confirmation from us that the student’s substantial qualification is eligible.

Institutions must make payments directly to eligible students’ landlords for their rental costs. Proof of payment should be kept for audit purposes.

You must not make RSS payments directly to students. The only exception to this rule is in circumstances where a student has already paid some of their rent before the institution has fully completed assessment of their RSS application. In this instance, you may reimburse these costs, as long as the rental period the student has paid for is within the agreed period of the RSS award. You must keep proof of payment for audit purposes.

Students must apply for RSS each academic year they need support from the scheme. You must check that students continue to meet the criteria each year.

If students apply for RSS part way through the year, you can only award RSS from the beginning of the term in which the student applied.

3.1 Verification of the student’s substantial qualification

As part of the RSS application process, institutions must complete a course verification form to ask us to verify each student’s substantial qualification.

You should send us one form that contains all new students seeking RSS funding for verification, not multiple/separate forms to verify individuals. We recognise this will not always be possible, and this does not prevent you from sending additional forms but one form that contains the majority of the students enables us to operate the verification process more quickly.  

You should submit course verification forms as soon as possible in the academic year. This ensures students do not make financial commitments on the assumption they will receive RSS when they may not be eligible for it.

The 2024 to 2025 academic year course verification form will be available from June 2024. You should request it using our customer help portal.

You must complete the verification form in full, providing all the requested information and submit it via Document exchange following the instructions on the form. Any forms that are sent with missing or inaccurate information (for example, incorrect qualification reference numbers) will be rejected and returned to the institution.

Institutions must not include any personal details for students (such as name or date of birth) on the form. We will delete any forms that include personal details and ask the institution to re-submit it containing only the required information.

We will verify if the same or similar substantial level 2 or 3 qualification is available within daily travelling distance of the student’s home address. In other words, whether the student can achieve the same or similar qualification in their local area.

We will notify institutions of the decision within 7 working days. The decision will be either to confirm the student is eligible (the institution must verify they meet all other RSS criteria) or to reject the application because the student can achieve the same or similar qualification locally.

If we reject an application because the same or similar substantial qualification is available within daily travelling distance, the institution must reject the student’s RSS application.

You must keep a copy of our response as part of your auditable records.

Under no circumstances should institutions give any guarantees of RSS funding to students, or their parents, or make any RSS payments before we have confirmed in writing that the student’s substantial qualification is eligible and the institution itself has fully assessed the student against all other criteria.

3.2 Change of study programme or withdrawals

If the student leaves the study programme, institutions must stop RSS payments immediately. If the institution requires a student who leaves early to make a payment to cover the accommodation cost to the end of the term, for example, you must ensure you make this clear to students as part of your RSS application process.

If the student transfers to a different study programme with a different substantial qualification, the institution must submit a further course verification form for the new qualification’s eligibility to be verified. If the student can access the new qualification in their local area, they will stop being eligible for RSS and payments should cease immediately.

3.3 Continuing students

Students receiving RSS who are returning to the second or subsequent year of their study programme in the 2024 to 2025 academic year do not need to have their substantial qualification checked with us again. However, you must confirm, via an application from the student, that they continue to meet all other RSS criteria.

Any student who changes their substantial qualification in a subsequent year of study must have their new qualification verified by us.

4. Funding and allocations

We have generated RSS allocations in the 2024 to 2025 academic year for institutions that had students verified as eligible for support from the scheme in the 2023 to 2024 academic year where those students are expected to return for a second or subsequent year of study. We use the course verification form as the source of this information.

The allocation provides funding for the actual students currently receiving RSS. It does not make any assumptions about demand in the 2024 to 2025 academic year. We will release any additional funding that is needed to institutions (both those given an initial allocation and any institution that approaches us in-year with eligible students) as and when required.

Institutions may use up to 5% of their RSS allocation for administrative costs. The 5% is built into the allocation total, it is not an additional 5% on top of the allocation total.

Institutions are not permitted to transfer any funds to or from RSS to or from other student financial support schemes provided by us.

We will reconcile RSS funding at the end of the academic year. All unspent funds will be recovered and cannot be carried forward to future years.

4.1 Payments

RSS allocations for the academic year will be paid to institutions in 2 parts: two thirds in August 2024 and one third in April 2025. Additional funding that is approved during the year will reflect this payment schedule as far as possible but may vary, depending on when an eligible student is verified.

5. Individualised learner record (ILR) and data returns/management information requirements

We remind institutions about the importance of completing the ILR to indicate the number of students getting residential support from RSS. More information about the student support codes in the ILR can be found in the ILR specification. In the longer term, we will use data from the ILR learner funding and monitoring (FAM) learner support reason to identify students who have taken up RSS to generate allocations. Institutions are strongly encouraged to complete these fields. 

We will review ILR data periodically throughout the year including R14. This information will support the development of RSS policy and help target RSS funding.

We require institutions to complete a short data/management information return each October to confirm the number of students who received RSS and the amount of funding spent during the previous academic year.

We will use the data for reconciliation. Unspent funds will be recovered.

The requirement to submit information for audit and reconciliation and to support allocation processes forms part of funding agreements. Institutions that fail to complete the return by the deadline (specified on the data return form) will be subject to recovery of RSS funds in full.

6. Audit and assurance

RSS is subject to normal assurance arrangements for 16 to 19 education and training. Institutions must ensure they have appropriate processes in place to record RSS applications and awards (including the students supported, the value of the award and a brief justification for the decision to award funding or reject the application).

Institutions must ensure they can evidence their application process, how the student was assessed, how they made the decision to award the specific amount of RSS and the funds that they have issued for the student’s costs. They should also ensure they have retained a copy of our decision on the course verification form. Auditors will be looking for evidence that institutions have applied the RSS eligibility criteria correctly and used a transparent and consistent application and assessment process for all students.

You must retain copies of any documents the student has signed to give formal agreement to their conditions for payment.

Hard or scanned copies of documentation must be retained for 6 years (records can be kept electronically). Institutions should note that, following an audit, we may recover funding where RSS payments are found not to have been made in accordance with this guide.

7. Institutions’ responsibilities in managing complaints or appeals

Any student or parent who is unhappy with how an institution has managed their application for RSS should follow the institution’s own complaints procedure.

If a student or parent is unhappy with the decision made at the course verification stage of the process, it is the responsibility of the institution to approach us with any additional information for review. Institutions must not advise parents/students to contact us.

Institutions should explain to students how they can complain or appeal about any decision relating to RSS support and/or the way in which their application for RSS support was handled.

8. Further information

If you have questions after reading our guidance, or if there’s anything else you need help with, you can find more support in our customer help centre.