Tag: financial guidance

Student Finance FAQs 2021/22

Throughout this blog, we are going to answer some of the most frequenlty asked questions we get at the start of term in regards to Student Finance and how you can get in contact with us.

I haven’t received my Student Maintenance Loan, what can I do? 

If you have been assessed for your funding by Student Finance England (or your regional funding provider) and have recently enrolled, it could be that the University has only just confirmed your attendance. This usually triggers your loan payment, however it can still take up to 5 days for any money to reach your account.  

If you have enrolled, but you haven’t yet been assessed by Student Finance England (or your regional funding provider), then we would encourage you to call them or check your online account for an update on your application. You may need to provide further information to support your application.  

  • Contact Student Finance England (SFE): 

For general information and to apply visit: www.gov.uk/student-finance 

Telephone:  0300 100 0607   

Monday to Friday: 8am to 8pm    
Saturday and Sunday: 9am to 4pm   

  • Contact Student Finance Services (EU students): 

Telephone: 0141 243 3570  

Monday to Friday: 8am to 8pm  

Saturday and Sunday: Closed  

 I’ve only recently applied for student finance, how long will it take to be assessed?  

Applications usually take approximately 6 – 8 weeks, however, the start of term is a very busy time for processing applications and additional information. We would encourage you to check your online account for updates and call SFE (or your regional funding provider) if you have queries.  

Can I apply for any short-term loan until my student finance comes through?   

Students can apply for a short-term Bridging Loan of up to £500 (eligibility criteria apply). For further details and to apply online, click the button below.   

Bridging loan

I’m not sure I have been assessed correctly for my Maintenance Loan, how can I check?   

f you’re worried and want to check if you’ve been assessed correctly for your funding, please use the Student Finance calculator to estimate the level of loan available as well as any extra student funding, for example if you have a disability or children. Please note this calculator is for students from England and EU students starting a new undergraduate course in 2021/22.   

Student Finance Calculator

Can the Financial Guidance Team contact Student Finance England (SFE) on my behalf?  

Yes. We would however encourage students to call SFE initially as this may resolve your query quickly. If you still require help and would like the team to contact SFE, you will need to set up a ‘consent to share’ to give permission. This allows the Financial Guidance team (or other Student Services team) to contact SFE (or your regional funding provider) to discuss your application on your behalf.   

  

To arrange this, please call SFE on 0300 100 06 07 and advise them that you would like to set up a ‘consent to share’ for the University of Northampton – they will usually ask for the institution name, as well as our relationship to you, which is ‘Higher Education Provider’ or HEP. They may also ask for the postcode of the University (NN1 5PH).   

  

You will then be asked for a password, which the Financial Guidance team will need to know to access your account – please contact us afterwards with this password.  

Is there additional support available from SFE for those with dependents or disabilities?   

Yes. SFE have additional support available for those with children or dependent adults as well as support for those with a disability, long-term health condition, mental health condition or specific learning difficulty (such as dyslexia), eligibility criteria apply. Please see a summary below:    

  • Parents Learning Allowance - up to £1,821 a year depending on your household income.  
  • Childcare Grant - up to 85% of weekly childcare costs (up to a maximum of £179.62 per week for one child or £307.95 per week for more than one child). 
  • Adult Dependents’ Grant – up to £3,190 a year depending on household income. 
  • Disabled Students Allowance  

For further information, visit the following Student Finance pages: Extra Help or Quick Start Guides

I’m studying a health professional course and I’ve heard about an additional training grant from the NHS, what is this and where can I find out more?  

Students who are studying on certain pre-registration undergraduate and postgraduate health professional courses such as nursing, midwifery, occupational therapy, podiatry, physiotherapy or paramedic science may be eligible for additional financial assistance from the NHS Learner Support Fund (eligibility criteria apply). Students may apply for this support in addition to the funding available from Student Finance England.

For further details and to apply, click here.

Useful contacts

Financial Guidance Team:    01604 893299   money@northampton.ac.uk   

Fee queries (Income Team):   01604 892327   income@northampton.ac.uk   

Scholarships Administrator: Scholarships@northampton.ac.uk  

If you need to contact the Financial Guidance Team to discuss your funding query, we would encourage you to call or email initially. If necessary, we can arrange a follow-up appointment.  

Come and see us!

The Financial Guidance Team, will be running drop in sessions on the ground floor of the learning hub between 10am and 2pm from Monday 4th October through until Tuesday 12th October. Feel free to come and see us with any questions or queries that you have surrounding your Student Finance.

How to submit supporting evidence to the Financial Guidance Team using OneDrive.

1. Login to OneDrive using your University of Northampton sign in details. (These are the same details you use to access NILE). Here is the link to the OneDrive login page.

A screen grab showing the Microsoft OneDrive sign in page.

2. Create a folder on your University of Northampton One Drive account and name it appropriately.

A screen grab showing the Microsoft OneDrive creation of a new folder.

3. Upload all the documents that you need to provide to this folder. Make sure you name all the corresponding documents correctly with a relevant name. Such as David Lewis – Monzo Current Account – 1234 – May 2021. (By naming your documents correctly and fully, it will allow for the Financial Guidance Team to be able to process and review your evidence quicker). If possible, convert all of your documentation to PDFs as it ensures that it will not change format or formatting when opened on another computer.

A screen grab showing the Microsoft OneDrive files inside a folder, The files are name in regards to the name and the corresponding documentations.

4. When you have uploaded and appropriately named your required documents to the folder. It is time to share the folder with the Financial Guidance Team so we can access your supporting evidence. To do this you need to go back to the ‘My Files’ section of you OneDrive and click on the icon next to you folders name which shows and arrow leaving a folder.

A screen grab showing the Microsoft OneDrive My Files page. This also shows how to send a link by clicking on the send link image to the right of the file name.

5. This will take you to the send link menu, where you can determine how you want to share the folder with the Financial Guidance Team. We recommend using the ‘Copy Link’ function as it allows you to send from your email provider of choice.

A screen grab showing the Microsoft OneDrive send link pop up.
A screen grab showing the Microsoft OneDrive

6. Make sure to set your link settings to ‘People in The University of Northampton with the link can view.’ If it is not automatically set to that, you can can change it by clicking the arrow to the left of whom it is sent to. You will then get a menu where you can select the relevant option and click apply.

A screen grab showing the Microsoft OneDrive send link pop up and how to change the link settings to reflect to who you want to share the link with.

7. You will then want to click on the copy link icon. This will create a URL link which you will be able to copy and share.

A screen grab showing the Microsoft OneDrive link copied screen/

8. All you finally need to do, is create your email to copy you link into. Please include your student number and what you are providing the supporting documentation for.

A screen grab showing a drafted email to the FG Applications email with the body of text containing the link to a shared OneDrive file.

If you have any more questions about the submission of supporting documentation, please contact the Financial Guidance Team.

Contact the financial guidance team

Mother’s Day 2021. What should I do?

Mother’s Day or Mothering Sunday falls on Sunday 14th March this year in the UK. For many people, they will be spending their Mother’s Day away from their loved ones even though restrictions are gradually starting to ease – as of Monday 8th March you can meet one individual outside in a public space. However, for some a virtual or digitalised Mother’s Day will be a thing. Throughout this Money Matters Blog, we’ll give you some top tips and savings on what you can do for a slightly different Mother’s Day.

https://disney.tumblr.com/post/85159951577/disney-mothers-day-cards-sure-to-warm-your-heart

Cards

A card is the staple gift of all celebrations, be it a Birthday, Christmas or Valentine’s Day – a card is a necessity. If you are planning on posting a shop-bought card, you best be looking to post it very soon, as Royal Mail don’t deliver post on a Sunday. If you are planning on posting First Class you will need to have put it in a post box by Friday and for Second Class by Wednesday. (Always remember to check the collection times on the Post Box, because if you miss it, your post won’t be collected until the next day).

If you’re looking to find something more personalised or potentially funnier than the standard shop bought card, have a look online. There are loads of websites out there where you can personalise your cards with pictures or funny messages. These websites run all year round, so you can get the card of your choice for any celebration. Some of our favourite websites for personalised cards are Funky Pigeon and Moon Pig. They will post it directly to your recipient you needn’t worry about the stress of postage they’ll inform you of the last day that you can order this with postage.

Flowers

What says Mother’s Day more than a beautiful bunch of flowers being handed over? For those of you living at home, you would normally be able to pop to a local florist (however Covid-19 Restrictions may prevent you this year) or a supermarket and pick up a beautiful bunch of lilies or daffodils.  If you have one of NUS’ Totum cards, you can get 10% off in Co-op, making some great extra savings.

For those of you living away from home and needing to send something by post or for those of you living at home and wanting to order something extra special, There are a whole array of online florists out there, if you use the StudentBeans app, you can find up to 20% off at eflorist.

There are loads of different online florists and great supermarket bouquets to be found out there. However, don’t leave it to the very last minute and end up with a wilted twig.

Hampers & Gift Sets

If you are unsure of just one thing to get your Mum for Mother’s Day, why don’t you get them a few different things such as a hamper or a gift set? You can make your hampers and gift set reflective of what you want or what you know your Mum would love? Be it chocolate, wine, bath stuff or even cheese. You can do whatever you’d like with a hamper.

If you are currently living with your Mum, you can easily make your hamper, by grabbing some of her favourite things from the supermarket or even venturing to B&M to see what wonders they have available.

If you’re living away from home, ordering a hamper online to be delivered to your Mum’s front door is probably the easiest thing to do. There are tonnes of websites doing online hampers this year so you can be spoilt for choice. Websites such as Not on the High Street have a whole array of different hampers that you can order.

If you’re an avid online shopper and make the most of your Amazon Prime Student account, you can find some amazing deals and hampers on there too and make the most of the Prime next day delivery. Such as this Teamtime Delights Mother’s Day Hamper.

Photo Albums

In the digital world that we are living in currently, with high-quality cameras built into our smartphones, we take more photos than ever before. But often they get lost into the ether of our smart phone’s photo album never to be looked at again. So why don’t you print these photos into an album?

Snapfish currently has 50% off on photo books allowing you to create a book of memories that can be flicked through, wherever and whenever.

If you want to have constantly changing photos, why don’t you consider getting a digital photo frame? These were all the rage a few years ago and allow for a constantly changing slide show of photos. Which could be a great way to share memories with your loved ones.

Whatever you do this Mother’s Day in this somewhat strange time that we are finding ourselves in, do what works for you! For many people, the Covid-19 Pandemic has brought financial hardships and difficulties so spending a large sum of money may not work for you. Remember it is the thought that counts.

But always make sure to see if Student Discount is available as you could save yourself a whole host of money!

Getting the most out of your bank account – part two

University may be the first time you’ve needed to manage your money – and getting into good habits with your bank account can help.

We have produced a two-part guide to getting the most out of your bank account: part one – which looks at choosing a student bank account, checking your balance regularly, and limiting transfers – can be found here; part two – understanding overdrafts, checking unnecessary spending, having two bank accounts, and where to find further support – is below.

Continue reading “Getting the most out of your bank account – part two”

Getting the most out of your bank account – part one

University may be the first time you’ve needed to manage your own money – and getting into good habits with your bank account can help. Although we can’t tell you who to bank with or guarantee that your balance will always be in credit, we can advise you on how to take simple steps to make the most of your account – and your money – with our two-part guide.

Continue reading “Getting the most out of your bank account – part one”

Money FAQs for beginning of term 2019/20

At the start of term, the Financial Guidance team receive many queries relating to student finance and funding. Here is a list of the most typical questions – and answers – to help you while you study with us.

Continue reading “Money FAQs for beginning of term 2019/20”

Welcome to University (2019/20)

Welcome to the University of Northampton! Whether you’re a new or returning student, we hope you have a fantastic experience studying with us at Waterside. Money can be a cause of concern for students, but the Financial Guidance team are here to help; here is our checklist to help you get into good habits early when managing your money:

Continue reading “Welcome to University (2019/20)”

Can I afford to do a Masters?

So you’ve finished your course – what’s next? Studying for a Masters degree or other (postgraduate) course is a popular choice – whether you loved your course so much that you’d like to carry on, you’ve decided that you need another qualification for your desired career, or even that you’d like a bit more time at Uni before deciding what to do next, there are plenty of exciting study options available.

However, funding for a Masters differs from what’s available for undergraduate study – before enrolling on your dream course, it’s definitely worth taking some time to plan how you’re going to fund yourself for the next year of study – if you don’t have savings, or family who are wealthy and/ or generous enough to offer support.

Continue reading “Can I afford to do a Masters?”