What to do if you’re in financial hardship
Guidance on what to do if you're struggling financially as a result of your student finance entitlement being reduced, because you were overpaid.
Applies to England
If you’re struggling financially because you’ve been paid too much loan or grant and as a result your student finance has been reduced, you should seek help as soon as possible.
You should speak to your university or college about your circumstances. They could offer help and advice with any financial or personal problems. They may also be able to direct you to other people or organisations that can help.
If you’ve finished or left your course, we may be able to work out a more affordable way for you to pay back the amount you were overpaid, instead of having to pay it back all at once.
Let us know as soon as you can if you’re in financial hardship. You should contact us on 0300 100 0607. We’ll send you a ‘Financial Hardship Confirmation’ form to complete and upload to your online account. Your university or college can also request the form for you and should be able to help you fill it in.
On the form you’ll give us details of your income and any financial outgoings. It might be helpful to find this information before you start filling it in. You’ll also need to send us some documents with the form, including bank statements for all of your bank accounts.
We look at every application on an individual basis. We know this can be a difficult time and we’ll assess your application for hardship within 2-3 weeks.
If you need any impartial advice, you should visit www.citizensadvice.org.uk/debt-and-money
Further information
There can be many reasons why an overpayment has happened. More detailed information based on your specific situation can be found on our other pages:
Updates to this page
Last updated 29 November 2022 + show all updates
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Updated guidance in paragraph 4 to promote new digital upload process.
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New links added to the page.
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First published.