Finance for independent students
If you're applying as an independent student, here's what you'll need to do to apply for student finance. Content provided by Student Finance England.
If you're applying as an independent student, here's what you'll need to do to apply for student finance. Content provided by Student Finance England.
If you’re an independent student, Student Finance England won’t take your parents’ income into account when working out how much student finance you can get.
If you’re married, in a civil partnership, or over 25 and living with your partner, Student Finance England will ask your partner for their National Insurance number and personal income details.
You'll be classed as independent if:
Depending on your circumstances, you might need to send Student Finance England:
You might be able to apply as an estranged student if you’ve had no contact with both your parents for over a year. This means you will have had no written or verbal contact with either parent, and this is unlikely to change. However, if you’ve had contact with either parent in the last 12 months, we’ll still consider your application.
You could also apply if your relationship with your parents has broken down within the last 12 months and you don’t expect this to change in the near future.
You cannot apply as estranged just because:
If you apply as an estranged student you won’t need to send your parents’ financial information, and it could affect how much Maintenance Loan you can get.
You may also be assessed as estranged if you later stop contact with your parents or meet any of the estrangement criteria later in the academic year. Each estrangement application is looked at on a case by case basis.
If you apply as an estranged student, you will need to give us some evidence. The easiest way to do this is to fill in the Confirmation of Estrangement Form. You can find this form on your online account once you’ve submitted your application.
Otherwise, you can send us a:
You don’t have to disclose the full details of your estrangement – however, this could speed up your application.