Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential (a) merits of calculating maintenance loans through net rather than gross household income and (b) impact of that change on single parental income households.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

Entitlement to partially means-tested undergraduate loans for living costs is based on the income of the student’s household.

The income used is the total income on which a person is charged income tax at step 1 of the calculation in Section 23 of the Income Tax Act 2007, before the deductions made by HMRC from step 2 onwards of Section 23.

The use of income charged to tax in the household income assessment applies a standard measure of income to calculate a student’s entitlement to living costs support and allows all students to be assessed consistently and fairly. It also ensures that the most support is paid to students from the lowest income families, including those with single parents, who need it most and who are historically under-represented in higher education. It is not intended to be an exact calculation of disposable income for each household.

Information on income is available from HMRC and allows around 1.3 million assessments a year to be carried out quickly and efficiently each year by Student Finance England.

Maximum grants and loans for living and other costs for the 2025/26 academic year have been increased by forecast inflation, 3.1%, based on the RPIX inflation index.

Found: Democrat; Melksham and Devizes) David Mundell (Conservative; Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale) James Naish

Found: meeting Members present: Sarah Champion (Chair); Janet Daby; Tracy Gilbert; Noah Law; David Mundell; James Naish

Found: meeting Members present: Sarah Champion (Chair); Janet Daby; Tracy Gilbert; Noah Law; David Mundell; James Naish

UK ICF was launched in 2011 as Official Development Assistance (ODA). It plays a crucial role in fulfilling the UK’s obligations under the Paris Climate Agreement and advancing the Government’s wider ambition to establish the UK as a global leader in international climate action. In 2019, the previous Government announced its commitment to spend £11.6 billion in ICF in the five years to 2025-26. The UK’s 2023 ICF strategy outlined four priority areas for the funding: clean energy; nature for climate and people; adaptation and resilience; and sustainable cities, infrastructure and transport. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and three other Government departments – the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ); Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra); and Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) – have responsibility for funding and delivering ICF.