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SLC Coronavirus (COVID-19) update

SLC issues updated guidance for applicants, current students and those repaying their student loans in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Image of a keyboard with the words COVID-19 written across it.

We have been working hard to continue providing our core student finance services for those applying for academic year 2020/21, for current students expecting summer term payments, for customers in repayment and for the universities and colleges we work closely with.

Following the most recent Government guidance on COVID-19 we are having to change the way we deliver our services. To enable us to do this as quickly as possible, we are now closing our customer contact centres temporarily for new and existing students, and for any customer in repayment.

The closure of our customer contact centres will not impact summer term maintenance payments to students or tuition fee payments to education providers. These payments will be made as normal. New and existing students in England and Wales can continue to apply for student finance and we will continue to process any applications that have been received as quickly as we can.

We are working to restore service at our contact centres as soon as we can and we will provide further information on this over the coming days.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause but trust you will understand the importance of the measures we have taken given the current circumstances.

Will I still get my next student finance payment?

SLC can confirm that students will receive their scheduled or next instalment of their maintenance loan at the planned start of their summer term, regardless of whether their university or provider has made alternative arrangements for teaching.

Can I still apply for student finance?

If you’re studying at the moment or you’ll be starting a full-time, undergraduate course after 1 August 2020, you can apply online for student finance as normal. At this time, we have closed our customer contact centres to enable us to change how we deliver our services in the coming weeks and months. This will mean that we won’t be able to respond to queries over the phone or on social media during this time.

Postgraduate and part-time,undergraduate student finance applications for academic year 2020 to 2021 are scheduled to launch later this year. We will keep you update on our social media channels.

We are working to restore service at our contact centres as soon as we can and we will provide further information on this over the coming days.

Will you still take student loan repayments if I can’t work due to Coronavirus?

It’s important to remember that you’ll only make repayments to your student loan once you’re earning over the repayment threshold for your repayment plan type. This means that if you stop working, or your income drops below the threshold, your repayments will stop too. Find out about the repayment thresholds for Plan 1, Plan 2 and Postgraduate Loans.

When will full contact services be restored?

We are working to restore our customer contact services as soon as we can by enabling more of our customer service colleagues to work safely. However, as a predominately office based organisation this is taking some time.

Our @SF_England social media team are starting to answer questions about your funding.

Our @SLC_Repayment social media team will be starting to answer questions in the coming days.

We plan to restore customer contact services over the next week, and we will provide further information here and on our social media channels.

Published 24 March 2020
Last updated 2 April 2020 + show all updates
  1. Additional FAQ added.

  2. First published.