Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of a Basic Student Income.

The government does not have plans to introduce a non-means tested basic income for students in England.

Decisions on student finance have to be taken to ensure the system remains financially sustainable and the costs of higher education (HE) are shared fairly between students and taxpayers, not all of whom have benefited from going to university.

The devolved governments have responsibility for HE in their respective countries and determine the student finance arrangements and their sustainability for their students.

The partially means-tested loan for living costs is provided as a contribution towards a student’s living costs while attending university rather than necessarily covering those costs in full, with the highest levels of support paid to students from the lowest income families who need it most. Financial support may be provided by the student’s parents or partner, but there are several other sources of funding available for students such as part-time employment, university bursaries and scholarships and local authority support such as the HE bursary.

Students awarded a loan for living costs for the 2023/24 academic year that is lower than the maximum, and whose household income has dropped by at least 15% compared to the income provided for their original assessment can apply for their entitlement to be reassessed.

The government recognises the additional cost-of-living pressures that have arisen this year and that are impacting students. The department has increased loans for living costs each year for students in England, with a 2.8% increase for the current academic year, 2023/24 and further 2.5% increase announced for 2024/25.

The department has already made £276 million of student premium and mental health funding available for the 2023/24 academic year to support successful outcomes for students including disadvantaged students.

The department is now making a further £10 million of one-off support available to support student mental health and hardship funding. This funding will complement the help universities are providing through their own bursary, scholarship and hardship support schemes.

Over the 2022/23 to 2024/25 financial years, the government is providing support worth £104 billion, or £3,700 per household on average, to help families throughout the UK with the cost of living, including help to meet increased household energy costs. This will have eased the pressure on family budgets and so will in turn enabled many families to provide additional support to their children in HE to help them meet increased living costs.