Special Support Grants

Some students will be able to claim a special support grant, however if you are eligible to receive a special support grant you will not also be awarded a maintenance grant. It is one or the other.

Like the maintenance grant the special support grant pays out up to £2,835 a year depending on your households income but unlike the maintenance grant it will not affect the amount of maintenance loan you may be entitled to receive.

If any of the following applied to you then you may be eligible for a special support grant:

• You are a lone parent (single parent);
  
  
• You have a partner who is also a student - and one or both of you are responsible for a child (or a young person aged under 20 who is in full-time education below higher-education level);
  
  
• You have a disability, and qualify for the disability premium or severe disability premium;
  
  
• You are deaf and qualify for Disabled Students' Allowances;
  
  
• You have been treated as incapable of work for a continuous period of at least 28 weeks;
  
  
• You are from abroad and entitled to an Income Support urgent cases payment because you are temporarily without funding for a period of up to six weeks;
  
  
• You are waiting to go back to a course after taking agreed time out because of an illness or caring responsibility that has now come to an end;
  
  
• You are aged 60 or over.

You do not have to repay a special support grant.