Checking the status of your student finance application
Track the status and progress of your student finance application using your online account to make sure your money is ready for starting your course.
Applies to England
Check your online account
There’s no need to call us if you want to check your application status, instead you can sign into your online account.
Use this guide to understand what the different application status’ means, and what the next steps are to make sure your money is ready for starting your course.
Incomplete application
This stage means you’ve not completed your student finance application, sign into your online account and select ‘Complete application’.
If you apply near the start of your course, you may get the minimum amount of student finance to begin with, so you have some money. Find out more about applying late.
Before you can track your application, you must submit your application and complete any outstanding actions using your online account.
Processing application
At this stage, we’re checking your application. We’ll keep you up to date by email and through your online account.
What happens next
- We’re checking your application – we’ll email you if we need anything else from you.
- We’ll email you updates about the progress of your application, you can also sign into your online account to check the progress.
- We’ll assess your application and tell you the outcome.
You’ll only see a date for next expected update if you’ve submitted evidence.
It can take up to 6 to 8 weeks to review your application in full.
Please don’t contact us during this time, so we can process your application as quickly as possible.
Confirming all details
This stage means your application has been approved and we’re just confirming some final details. Once we’ve confirmed all your details, you’ll be ready to get your payments.
During this stage, we’ll check your National Insurance number with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) - if you’ve not given us it yet, you can do this using your online account. This process takes around 2 weeks.
If you can’t find your National Insurance number, download the HMRC app to access it.
Don’t worry if this doesn’t change straight away.
The status ‘confirming all details’ won’t change until you’ve started your course and we’ve had confirmation of your registration/enrolment from your uni or college.
You’ll be able to view a summary of your scheduled Maintenance Loan and Tuition Fee Loan payments. If you’ve not applied for any Maintenance Loan, this will only show a summary of your Tuition Fee Loan.
What happens next
- We’ll email you if we need anything else from you.
- You need to register/enrol on your course.
- Your uni or college will need to confirm your registration/enrolment on the course to us.
Receiving payments
At this stage, we’ve confirmed your National Insurance number with the Department for Work and Pensions and we’ve had confirmation of registration/enrolment from your uni or college.
Using your online account, you can select ‘View your payments’ to see a full breakdown of how your payments are made.
What happens next
- We’ll send you a text message when your payment is on its way.
- We’ll pay your Maintenance Loan directly into your bank account at the start of each term.
- We’ll pay your Tuition Fee Loan directly to your uni or college.
Prepare for next year
At this stage, all your payments for this year will have been paid. You’ll need to re-apply for student finance for the next academic year of your course. You should do this as soon as applications for next year open.
For a whole range of student finance information, visit our campaign page and follow us on:
Updates to this page
Published 21 July 2021Last updated 13 March 2024 + show all updates
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Added link to HMRC app to find National Insurance number
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Add link to current timescales page
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Updated guidance to reflect 2022/23 academic year updates to online account and application status.
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A new image has been added showing a screenshot of an online account.
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First published.