Am I eligible to apply?
1. You must be currently enrolled/registered at the University to apply:
- This means that if you are currently absent, temporarily withdrawn, suspended, assessment-only, between courses, writing-up, have not yet started university or any other circumstances where you are not currently enrolled, you cannot apply.
- If you are a Postgraduate Research student and are currently in the 'writing up' phase of research, you may be eligible to apply. Please create an enquiry with the Money Advice team via Surrey Support.
2. Students must be studying at least 25% intensity of the full-time equivalent of the academic year. Please note, students on distance learning programmes are not eligible.
- Please get in touch with your School/Faculty if you are a part-time student and are unsure whether you meet this criterion.
3. You must receive your full entitlement to student loans and the NHS bursary, and you must have taken out an interest-free student overdraft.
- We understand that not all students are able to access Student Finance England Funding, the NHS bursary or an interest-free Student Overdraft. Students who are not eligible for those can still apply for the Hardship Fund.
- If you do not take out a student loan due to religious reasons, please contact the Money Advice team by using Surrey Support regarding your application to the Hardship Fund.
4. Students must be able to provide documentary evidence of their circumstances.
- Please see the tab on evidence for more information about this.
Can I apply during my Professional Training Year?
Students can also apply during their Professional Training Year, provided they meet the below criteria:
- You must be paying or have accessed a tuition fee loan for your Professional Training Year tuition fees
- You must have accessed a maintenance loan from Student Finance England (if applicable)
- You must provide a copy of your placement contract and information regarding whether your placement is paid or unpaid and any other benefits you might receive.
Can I apply for support during the summer holidays?
If you need support during the summer holidays, please contact us by using Surrey Support to create an enquiry.
What evidence do I need to provide?
We require documentary evidence of your circumstances to be able to assess your Hardship Fund application. Applying without the relevant evidence will delay the processing of your application.
We recommend gathering your supporting documents before you begin your application. All students must provide the following:
- Evidence of a tenancy agreement/accommodation invoice/mortgage agreement for the academic year you are applying in.
- Last three months of bank statements for all bank accounts in your name. This includes joint accounts and savings accounts. The nature of any transactions over £100 should be clearly explained in your applications.
- Evidence that you have access to an interest-free Student Overdraft (this can be shown on your bank statements) or the inability to access one if you are not eligible to apply.
- Student Finance England Funding – all students who are eligible to receive a student loan are required to show evidence of their maintenance and/or tuition fee loan.
- Alternative Funding – students who are not eligible for statutory funding are required to provide evidence of their substitute funding for the academic year i.e. sponsor, NHS bursary, parent, government, pension, employer, stipend or savings.
- A supporting statement which should give information about the following:
- Why you are applying for the Hardship Fund
- Your financial plan to meet your expenditure prior to your application
- What options you have tried to meet your expenditure
- If you have applied previously applied within the same academic year, please demonstrate how your circumstances have changed.
We may require additional evidence, depending on your circumstances. If we need further evidence when we assess your application, we will request it. Below are some examples of what we may need, however this depends on your individual case.
- If you have a job, the last three months of payslips you received
- Credit card statements
- Personal loan agreements, e.g. with community lenders, friends or family members
- Evidence of any state benefits you receive
- If you live with a partner, we will need their last three months of bank statements and their last three months of payslips. If they are a student, we will need evidence of their student status. If partners refuse to supply this, we cannot assess your application.
Why do I have to provide evidence of my circumstances?
When completing your application, you should provide supporting documents/evidence of the circumstances surrounding your financial hardship. The evidence we request is needed to help us assess your application.
In cases where not all evidence has been provided or evidence has been provided in an unacceptable format, Student Money Support will email you to request this additional evidence. It is important that you upload as much relevant evidence as possible with your initial application for hardship and evidence should be dated as recently as is possible. This will allow the Student Money Support Team to process your application with as few further evidence requests as possible.
Please be aware due to our audit processes we are not able to assess an application until we have all relevant supporting evidence. As such, applying without being able to attach supporting evidence or emailing evidence to Student Money Support will cause a delay.
If you have an issue providing the documents required, please contact the Student Money Support Team to discuss your application.
Why do I need to complete a budgeting module as part of my application?
Completing the Blackbullion “Make Budgeting Work for You” module is a compulsory part of all applications for the Hardship Fund this academic year. You can register using your Surrey email address for free at the Blackbullion website. The module takes around 12 minutes to complete.
We ask students to complete this as part of our commitment to increasing financial capability for students. The National Student Money Survey has found that 71% of students wish they had a better financial education before starting university. It is therefore important that we are here not only to help when times are difficult, but also provide useful information to improve knowledge about finances. The “Make Budgeting Work for You” module is a great place to start learning about finances. It is tailored to students, has information that is applicable to everyone, and contains helpful advice on how to make the most of the money you have during your time at university.
The “Make Budgeting Module Work for You” module is not the only module that students might find helpful. Blackbullion has a range of modules that are useful for students to complete such as Savings, Risk, Tax, Mortgages, Scams, Intro to Investing and much more. We would encourage students to take advantage of all the resources available on Blackbullion.
You will have access to Blackbullion for the full time you are a student with us here at Surrey.
How will my application be processed?
Students should submit their application via Surrey Self Service. Once received, the Student Money Advice Team will review the case and if required, ask you for further evidence of your financial situation.
We will assess all your income and expenditure for the entire academic year. Each academic year is assessed independently.
What is the timescale for receiving a decision?
When we receive an application, we aim to respond to the initial application within 5 working days.
Once we have received all the evidence we have requested, we will aim to complete the assessment and provide an outcome within 10 working days. You will be notified by email to your Surrey email address.
If you are facing a short-term cash flow issue, please contact us as soon as possible by using Surrey Support to create an enquiry. If it’s extremely urgent, please visit the MySurrey Hive or you can call on 01483 983952.
