Students: Coronavirus

(asked on 9th February 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he plans to follow the Northern Ireland Executive in giving students a £500 payment due to the disruption caused to their education by the current lockdown.


Answered by
Michelle Donelan Portrait
Michelle Donelan
Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
This question was answered on 16th February 2021

The government is aware of the disruption caused to education due to the current lockdown but we will not be providing cash payments to individual students, instead we created a wider support package to aid students during this difficult time. We are making available an additional £50 million of hardship funding this financial year. In total we have made £70 million of funding available for student hardship given the £20 million made available to higher education providers in December 2020.

This is a difficult and uncertain time for students, but we are working with the sector to make sure all reasonable efforts are being made to enable students to continue their studies and to ensure students are able to access the support they need. The new student hardship support will really benefit those students most in need by putting money into their pockets.

The £70 million of student hardship funding will be distributed by the Office for Students to higher education providers in the approved (fee cap) category of registration, who will have flexibility in how they distribute the funding to students, including international and self-funded students, in a way that will best prioritise those in greatest need. We would encourage all students who need assistance to reach out to their university as soon as possible.

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