Please note this is Part 1 of 3 of the Supplementary Notes explaining the Access to Learning Fund for full time students. Parts 2 and 3 are available online at http://www.mmu.ac.uk/studentfinance .
Alternatively you can contact us on 0161 247 1045 to request a copy of the notes.
This part will cover:
1a. The Aim of the Access to Learning Fund ……………………………………………………………………………..page 1
1b. Who can apply (eligibility)? ………………………………………………………………………………………………..page 2
1c. Closing dates for applications ……….……………………………………………………………………………….……page 3
1d. Detailed guidance on how to complete your form ..……………………………………………………………page 3
1e. How to check your application form ……..………………………………………………………….………..………page 6
1f. Where to submit your application form ..……………………………………………………………….……………page 6
1g. How long will it take to receive a decision? ………………………………………………………………………..page 7
The Access to Learning Fund (ALF) is a discretionary and cash limited fund administered by the university to support students who experience financial difficulty whilst at university. The aim of the fund is to provide financial assistance to those students who are experiencing financial hardship and students who are at risk of leaving university due to financial difficulties. Awards from the ALF do not need to be repaid.
Students who apply may be awarded a discretionary grant payment. However, there is no guarantee that an award can be made for every application. The fund has a limited amount of money to cover the full academic year. It should not be viewed as a reliable source of income to support your studies.
The following groups are priority for the fund:

Care leavers

Disabled students

Estranged students

Final year students

Lone parents

Students from low income backgrounds
 Students who are facing an emergency e.g. at risk of losing their home or liberty

Students who are providing care to another individual e.g. parent
If you do not fall into one of the above priority groups, you can still apply to the ALF if you are able to demonstrate that you are experiencing financial hardship, exceptional costs or an unexpected situation.
If you do fall into one of the above priority groups, this does not guarantee that you will receive an award from the ALF. Applications are considered on a case-by-case basis, and any awards granted are dependent on your personal circumstances.
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IMPORTANT
The ALF cannot be used to meet the cost of tuition fees for any student. It is expected that students eligible for a tuition fee loan have applied for the maximum amount before applying to the fund.
Postgraduate students must have made ‘adequate provision’ to cover the total cost of their tuition fees and living costs before starting their course. This means that we expect postgraduate students to have enough money in place to cover the total cost of their tuition fees and their living costs before starting on their course. This may be through a Professional Career Development Loan, sponsorship, scholarships, savings, part-time work or other available funding.
All full time students must meet the following eligibility criteria to apply:

‘Home’ students paying the ‘home’ rate of tuition fees
OR

An EU student in receipt of a maintenance loan from Student Finance*

Enrolled on a full-time or sandwich course
*Postgraduate EU students will either need to demonstrate that they were in receipt of a maintenance loan from Student Finance during their undergraduate degree or will need to demonstrate that they have been resident in the UK for 3 years prior to the start of their course
(other than for purposes of education).
N.B. Students paying the international rate of tuition fees or EU students who are in receipt of a tuition fee loan only are not eligible to apply.
The following table outlines further eligibility criteria depending on the level of study or funding body:
You must be in receipt of the maximum amount of maintenance loan and tuition fee loan that is available to you. If you are eligible for a maintenance grant, you must also be in receipt of this.
Undergraduate Students
You must have a UK student support number.
NHS Funded Students
You must have received your first instalment of maintenance loan before applying to the ALF.
You must be in receipt of an NHS means-tested bursary and a maintenance loan from Student Finance England. You must also have received your first instalment of maintenance loan before applying to the ALF.
If you are an NHS salaried student, you must have applied for a maintenance loan from Student Finance England.
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Postgraduate Students
Intercalating Students
You must have made ‘adequate provision’ to fund your tuition fees and living costs before embarking on your course.
This means that we expect you to have enough money in place to cover the total cost of your tuition fees and your basic living costs before starting on your course. This may be through a Professional Career
Development Loan, sponsorship, scholarships, savings, part-time work or other available funding.
If you have suspended your studies due to health issues, for caring reasons, or other unavoidable circumstances, you may be eligible to apply. Please refer to the Student Financial Support Team to check if you are able to apply.
IMPORTANT
For all of the above groups of students, if you are eligible to receive benefits, you are also expected to have applied for all statutory support to which you are entitled, particularly Tax Credits and
Social Security Benefits, before you apply.
If you have an outstanding Emergency Hardship Loan, including any loans to pay for an Educational
Psychologist Assessment (from any academic year), you must repay this in full before you can apply to the ALF.
Application forms will be available from the 21 st September 2015. You can apply up until the closing dates below. No applications can be accepted after the closing date.
This section outlines how to complete your application form. Please read this section carefully as application forms that are not completed correctly will be rejected.
Section A – Personal Details
Please complete all of the relevant boxes with your personal details, ensuring your correspondence address is correct as your supporting documents will be returned to this address. You should also list all of your child and adult dependents if you have any children or adults who are financially
dependent on you.
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Section B – Bank Details
Please provide the account details for your main account. If your application is successful, this is the account that your award will be paid into so please ensure that this section is completed correctly.
You should also list account details for every other account that you own, including joint accounts, students accounts, current accounts, savings accounts and ISAs.
EVIDENCE: You will need to provide bank statements for every account that you own. If your statements show transfers into another account in your name, these transfers will be questioned.
Therefore, please ensure you provide statements for all of your accounts.
Section C – Student Income
You should list all of your student income including student loans, grants, bursaries and other funding.
EVIDENCE: You will need to provide evidence of all of the income listed in this section. Please refer to the right hand column of the table for guidance on the evidence that is required.
Section D – Additional Income
You should list ALL of the income that you have in addition to your student income. This may include wages, contributions from family members, and any additional state benefits that you receive.
EVIDENCE: You will need to provide evidence of all of the income that you list in this section. Please refer to the right hand column of the table for guidance on the evidence that is required.
Section E – Spouse/Partners income
Please do not complete this section unless you live with a partner. You should list all of the income that your partner will receive in 2015/16. You should also list account details for every account
owned by your partner, including joint accounts, students accounts, current accounts, savings accounts and ISAs.
EVIDENCE: You will need to provide bank statements for every account owned by your partner. If your statements show transfers into another account in your partner’s name, or another account in your name, these transfers will be questioned. Therefore, please ensure you provide statements for all of your accounts and your partner’s accounts.
Section F – Expenditure
You should list the ESSENTIAL and REGULAR costs that you and your partner (if applicable) will have in 2015/16. These costs could include things like rent, childcare and travel costs. You should not include things like food, utility bills, mobile phone costs, clothes and entertainment as we use a fixed amount for general living costs for all students. For more information on this fixed amount, please refer to Part 4 of these supplementary notes.
EVIDENCE: You will need to provide evidence for any costs that you list in this table.
Section G – Accommodation Details / Personal Circumstances
You should tick the appropriate boxes to best describe who you are living with (Part 1) and whether you have any specific personal circumstances that we should be aware of (Part 2). Please note that any information that you disclose in this section will not be shared with any other part of the university (please refer to confidentiality statement in section I).
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If you are unsure if you meet the personal circumstances indicated under part 2, please refer to the following definitions:
I am estranged from my parents: To be considered as estranged from your parents, you should not have had verbal or written contact with both of your parents for a period of one year before the start of the current academic year. If the period of estrangement is less than one year, you could still be regarded as estranged if you are able to demonstrate on other grounds that you are irreconcilably estranged from your parents.
During the application process, you may be asked to provide evidence to show that the estrangement is genuine and that reconciliation is currently impossible (or at least highly unlikely). It is not enough that you do not get on with your parents or that you have had a serious disagreement recently. The fact that you may choose to live apart from your parents is not itself sufficient evidence of an irreconcilable estrangement. Similarly irreconcilable estrangement cannot be inferred simply on the ground that your parents refuse to co-operate during your application for Student
Finance (e.g. by not replying to letters or refusing to complete income assessment forms) or does not provide financial support to you. These factors could be present if there has been a genuine estrangement, but one of these factors alone is not sufficient to be regarded as estranged.
Before starting university I had been in care or I was a Foyer resident: You must be a care leaver as recognised under the Children Leaving Care Act 2000. You must have been under the age of 25 at the start of your course. If you were a Foyer resident, you will have spent time living in a foyer residence immediately prior to starting university.
I am currently providing care to another individual: A carer is anyone who cares, unpaid, for a friend or family member who due to illness or disability cannot cope without their support. If you fall into this category, please ensure that you provide evidence of your caring responsibilities. This evidence could include:

A letter confirming why you need to provide care to this individual (e.g. DLA/PIP letter)

Carers allowance letters* (if you were previously in receipt of this before becoming a student)

Hospital appointment letters

A supporting letter from the person you are caring for (if possible)
*Full time students who were previously in receipt of carers allowance before they started university should no longer be eligible to receive this.
Section H – Personal Statement with Evidence
This section gives you the opportunity to explain in as much detail as possible your reasons for applying for financial assistance, including any circumstances that may be unusual, exceptional or unexpected. Please note that any statement you write in this section must be supported by
evidence. There is no guarantee that we will be able to consider any of the circumstances that you refer to in your personal statement as the assessment must follow guidelines set by the university.
We will only be able to consider events or costs if they are supported by evidence.
Please note that we are only able to consider ‘priority debts’ in your assessment. Priority debts are those debts that should be dealt with first and quickly. If priority debts remain unpaid, they could result in you losing your home, liberty, essential goods or services. Bank overdraft facilities and credit card debts would not normally be considered as a priority debt. We can normally only consider debts where a realistic repayment arrangement has been arranged or a notice seeking possession or other court order has been issued.
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Section I – Student Declaration
In this section, you should read each of the statements in the declaration carefully and then tick the appropriate boxes to confirm that you agree to the relevant statements. You should then sign and date the declaration. Applications that are signed electronically (i.e. typed) will not be accepted.
Evidence checkpoints are placed throughout the application form to help you include all of the correct supporting evidence (see example below). There is also a final evidence checkpoint on the last page of the application form which should be used as a check list before submitting your application.
1.
TIMETABLE FOR MAKING A DECISION YES/NO
If you have answered yes to all of the above questions, you can proceed to section A.
Remember, applications without all necessary supporting evidence cannot be processed so please ensure you refer to all of the evidence checkpoints before submitting your application form.
Completed application forms, together with all supporting evidence, should be sent to the Student
Financial Support Team.
In person, to the Student Hub, Business School, Manchester Campus
(Please ask for a receipt when submitting your form.)
By post, to the following address:
Student Financial Support
Room 2.01, Business School and Student Hub
Manchester Metropolitan University
Oxford Road
Manchester
M15 6BH
Please note: If you are posting your application form, please ensure you take it to the Post Office to ensure it is weighed and the correct postage is paid. It is your responsibility to ensure that your application arrives by the closing date. Applications received after the closing date due to an insufficient postage payment will not be accepted.
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The time in which you will receive a decision will depend on the complexity of your application.
However, all applications should reach Stage 3 (decision) within four working weeks of submission, provided the application form is completed correctly and the appropriate documentary evidence has been supplied. If your application is incomplete, or if we ask you to provide additional information at any stage throughout the assessment process, your application will be delayed and may take longer than four working weeks to process.
The volume of applications received may vary at times. If we expect a delay in assessing your application due to this, we will notify you via your MMU student email account.
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