STAFFORDSHIRE UNIVERSITY
Hardship Fund Application Form: Budgeting Guidance Notes
Introduction
The Hardship Fund will consider offering support to students who have exhausted their available funds while they await their next maintenance loan instalment and/or seek employment. Students may only receive support once in any one academic year. Successful applicants will receive a single payment of £300.00 designed to meet essential costs pending the payment of their next maintenance loan instalment. It is anticipated that applicants will seek budgeting advice from the SAC.
This fund may not apply to those students studying with a partner institution. Please contact your Institution for more details.
To be eligible to apply students:
Ø Must be enrolled on an undergraduate or taught postgraduate course in 2017/18.
Ø Must be enrolled on a full-time or part-time basis in 2017/2018 taking at least 50% of a full-time course. This normally equates to taking a minimum of 60 undergraduate credits or 90 postgraduate credits in the academic year.
Ø Must be paying tuition fees at the Home or EU student rate.
Ø Must have taken out their full entitlement of maintenance loan. Postgraduate and part-time students must have made realistic provision by the start of their course to cover related costs.
Ø Must have an overdraft on their bank account and must be within £200.00 of their overdraft limit at the time of application. Students with no overdraft facility must provide evidence from their bank confirming that one is not available to them.
Ø Must not have exhausted their funds as a result of purchasing non-essential items or services.
Application Process
Students wishing to apply must complete the relevant application form and submit the required pieces of documentary evidence. Applications will not be assessed until they are complete. Once we have received an application we may exceptionally request additional information or documents that have not been supplied initially in order to complete our assessment.
Decisions
Successful applicants will receive a single £300.00 payment by cheque.
Decisions will be sent to a student’s University email account within 10 working days of receipt of a complete application. The cheque will be made available for collection from the Information Centre, Stoke site or the Information Centre, Stafford site.
Benefits alert!
The Students’ Union Student Advice Centre often sees full-time students who are under-claiming state benefits. Sometimes, this is even because benefit offices tell people who can claim benefits that they’re not eligible – the rules on student eligibility are complicated; even for experts.
Most full-time students can’t claim state benefits, but if you’re on the following list you might be able to claim during term time:
· Single parent (including foster parents)
· One of a couple who have children and who are both full-time students
· Person with a disability (especially if you get Disability Living Allowance, or Personal Independence Payment, or Employment & Support Allowance based on National Insurance contributions)
· Person over state retirement age
· Person getting a Disabled Students Allowance (DSA) because of deafness
· Person who intermitted from their course because of illness who has now recovered and is waiting for the next chance to re-join the course.
Or:
· If you are a full-time student and you live with a partner who is not a full-time student, your partner may still have some benefit eligibility.
·
If you fall into one of these categories and would like to check what you can claim, please have a chat with the Student Advice Centre. Even if you’re eligible, we’d also need to speak with you to work out what you could claim: benefits are means-tested and some parts of student income are taken into account for the means test.
Stoke telephone: (01782) 294629
Stoke office: above the Ember Lounge, College Road campus
How to complete the 2017/2018 application form
Applications for term-time awards can be accepted throughout the academic year until the closing date
4.30 pm on Friday 22rd June 2018
Hardship Fund awards do not usually have to be repaid. However, if your attendance is poor or you intermit or withdraw from your course before the end of the academic year you may be required to repay all or part of the award.
1. Part 1: Personal Details
Complete all sections.
2. Part 2: Course Details
Complete all sections. Please indicate the site where you study e.g., Stoke, Stafford.
3. Part3: Bank Details
Please complete this section in full and provide three months consecutive, up to date, bank statements for ALL accounts held in your name and your partner’s name (if relevant) including joint accounts and savings and investments accounts. You MUST write on your statements where ALL credits have come from i.e., salary, parental contribution etc. Please also state what ALL withdrawals of £50 or more have been spent on i.e., rent, food, shopping, course costs etc. Please note one of your statements must show the deposit of your student loan instalment. Your application may be rejected if you do not provide all of the relevant information, including a copy of bank statements. Also please provide evidence of all overdraft limits on your accounts. If you do not have an overdraft facility please provide evidence from your bank confirming that one is not available to you.
4. Part 4: Supporting statement
Please provide a full explanation of why you have insufficient funds at this point in time to get you through to when your next maintenance loan/grant instalment is due to be paid.
5. Part 5: Data Protection Act 1998
Please note the contents of this paragraph
6. Part 6: Declaration
Please read the declaration and remember to sign and date the form.
Appeals
If you want to appeal against the decision on your application please contact the Student’s Union Advice Centre (SAC) in the first instance. If appropriate the Advisor will contact the Hardship Fund and ask to see a copy of your application form. The Advisor may contact the Hardship Fund on your behalf if they believe your circumstances are not straightforward. Alternatively the SAC may help you to make your own additional case if you believe that your circumstances warrant it.
The only grounds for appeal will be:
That there has been a material error or irregularity in the decision making progress.
That the University has failed to give regard to pertinent information contained within or attached to the original application form.
Complaints
Students who wish to complain about the way in which their application has been handled should do so through the University Complaints Procedures. Details of the procedures are available on the University website.