Earn upto £3,500 for 30 minutes work!!! 'Access to Learning Fund'

bliss

Are any of you who applied and got accepted in your first year?

Lady_K

Yes my daughter applied and got accepted in her first year at her first uni. She has now started another course at another uni and shes been accepted again in her first year. They have no right to exclude first year students

Lady_K

If you are on a course with the NHS and recieve a bursary though they may have the right to refuse as its completely up to the individual universities if they help or not. It's completely thier choice, they are under no obligation to help. Luckily my daughter did recieve some help though and in her first year

bliss

I'm at sheffield hallam universtiy and study crim + psych. So would have thought that it doesnt matter which year ur in if your in financial difficulty

Lady_K

Well they are giving you missinformation or deliberately refusing to take your application. I'd see someone higher and straight away as the longer you leave it the pot will be empty

FamilyGuy_2

robhammond wrote:

Hi,

I'm until very recently was a manager of a University Advice Centre & also an Education & Welfare officer so you might be interested to know that there is FREE money available to quite a few students upto a maximum of £3,500 per academic year.

Most students at some point will have heard of the 'hardship fund'. This was re-branded the 'Access to Learning Fund' [ALF] a year`or so ago [it may be called something slightly different at every Uni].

Each Uni is given a few £100k per year [dependant on student numbers] to support students financially. I know (as a former member of an ALF reward committee) that every Uni is struggeling to give the remainder of thier money away - if they don't distribute it they have to give it back to the Department for Education & Skills (DfES) at the end of the academic year.

Needless to say they are desperate to give the money away, they are looking for anyone who meets the criteria of the fund.

It is a bit too lenghty to go into detail here but the general concept is that any student with children or dependants & students with disabilities are highly likely to receive an award (none repayable).

Then any student with an overdraft or 'priority debt' will most likely recieve something also (none repayable). A priority debt is either rent/mortgage arrears or a debt secured against your home NOT credit & store cards.

The form takes about 30 minutes to complete and requires you to provide details of your income & expenditure (don't worry if you have more coming in than out as they disregard any part time work - if you chose to work you should not be penalised for it). The fund also omits some types of expenditure mainly things like mobile phone bills & internet costs as these are not deemed 'essentials' - basically they do not reward students who CHOOSE to have an expensive lifestyle.

Even though it is near the end of the academic year they can, in some cases, back date payment to the start of the academic year. They also have a sub-fund called the Summer Fund that allows students to apply for finincial support through out the summer (this only applies to students continuing thier studies on the same course in September - i.e. if you have just finished your undergraduate & are starting you post-graduate in Sept unfortuntley you will not be eligible even if it is at the same Uni).

The forms, with completion guidance, are available from every student finance office & student advice centre. Most Unis also have the form available to download from thier website. I can't stress enough go pick one up & fill it in - they do ask for photocopies of three months bank statements as evidence so don't lie too much on the form!

I would seriously apply even if you think that your not that bad off as like I said they are desperate to give it away.

DO IT, NOW!!!

Hey robhammond,

Thanks a lot for this information. I went to my finance office to get the form, but the lady said she could not give it to me, because I first have to discuss with an advisor as to whether or not I need the funds. I set up a meeting next tuesday with the advisor. I was wondering, if there was any advice you could offer me, to help me get the funding.

My situation, is that I applied for a grant last summer to cover my tuition fees for my first year at Uni, but the LEA would only give me a loan. I rejected it, as I never like to be in debt to anyone, and instead paid the whole of my fees by myself. Although this left me with very little money, I had enough to live, and I figured I could recuperate the money by working.

However, I don't have a job anymore, as the company closed down. I have been unable to find a new job as yet, because all of them require me to start straight away, but I can't as I have my exams coming up. I am not well off so to speak. Only 1 of my parents work, and they have to support me aswell as 3 other siblings. I live at home, and travel everyday to Uni by bus.

I was planning to try and apply for a grant again this summer, for next year, but if I can get this ALF than it would really help me a lot. Each bit of it would go straight towards my Uni fees.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers!

elisebutt65

AFAIK - You won't get a grant or anything from the ALF, Unless you get a loan first.

you don't have to spend it though - just stick it a high interest account like some other people have on here.

Mines gone on bills already though - lol

robhammond

FamilyGuy

OK I can see two problems ahead for you...

1. elisebutt65 is spot on, the Access to Learning Fund cannot help you unless you have already taken out a student loan - and usually the maximum offered to you.
2. The funding cannot be used to pay tuition fees - there are very strict criteria against this. Otherwise the Uni could just pay itself for all students who haven't paid thier fees.

However not all hope is lost......

You can argue that your situation is a 'financial emergency' and unprecedented because of your redundancy.
You would have to explain that you chose not to take a loan because you had budgeted to be able to cope before the redundancy. Explain that you have looked for work but your exams are setting you back in finding anything.

Also mention that it is too late to apply for a loan this year & even if it wasn't that it would take far too long to process before you starve to death. If you have kids play the family card too!

You may initially be rejected because they first assess you against a strict criteria. However I would put an appeal in the same day becuase the appeals committee have discretionary powers, dependant on the circumstances, that can over rule the criteria. It is refferred to as a non-standard award.

Also state explicitly that the money is for general living expenses etc NOT for your fees - if you say it is for fees they cannot help you even if they want too.

This is another case that will really depend on your supporting statement rather than the cold figures. Make sure it is persuasive & spend time writing it - exagerate the situation but don't lie!!

p.s I have mentioned tips for your supporting statement in a previous post

Good luck & keep us all posted.

Rob

elisebutt65

I got £500!!!!!

As I posted a few days ago(last week?) I got turned down as I have too much coming in. Anyway, I just got my CTC award and this year they've broken it down properly and over £2000 is Child disability element so it doen't count towards income!!!! So I phoned up the college and the very nice lady told me that they'd decided to give me £500 anyway after discussions as they had it left over and they don't want to lose any of next years money!!!

Also it looks good for next year as well as I'm going to be a 3rd yr student and she said I need to apply asap when we start back as they really do support the 3rd years more than the others - as it's the most important year!!!

So happy now - I can buy a tumble dryer for the winter, and book the kids into some holiday club during the summer so I can do some of the extra research courses running to give my dissertation a kick start!!!:D :T

greyster

I got £1400 last year for my 1 year MSc course at Lancaster University.

I believe this came out of a Postgraduate ALF money pot.

Don't forget you can apply for a 2nd lot of money in the same year but treated low priority to new comers and will be a smaller figure.

If you are a new student, keep your eyes out for studentship/scholarships awarded at the beginning of the year. That usually involved a discount on tuitition fees or contribution towards living fees. This is university money, not government like ALF.