What happens in the assessment

We will not be able to start an assessment until we have received your completed application pack, consisting of your personal details form, your budget details form, and all of the supporting evidence.  As part of the application pack you will have received a link to the Student Support Fund presentation.We would strongly recommend that prior to submitting the pack you view the presentation to ensure you know what is required.

Once everything has been received your case will be assigned to an advisor, who will endeavour to deal with your case within 10 working days, (please be aware that complex cases or those missing information/supporting documentation can take longer). You will be notified by email the name of your advisor and how they can be contacted. 

The advisor will use the information you have provided to complete a standard assessment.

 Essentially they look at the weekly income you have for the year against your weekly essential essential expenditure to see whether or not you have enough money to live on.

We use set figures for some expenditure such as food, utilities and socialising to ensure all students are treated in a fair and equitable manner. These may differ from your personal budget and may be areas which you could review.

We also use caps. These are maximum amounts that we include which we believe to be appropriate to the area. If the figures in your personal budget exceeds theses caps this may be an area which you could review.

We do not include everything that you spend money on-our role is to look at what funding you need to attend university and as such we do not include lifestyle choices, however these are areas that you may be able to budget your spending. 

Below is a table of the income and expenditure that we will include in the assessment process.

Figures are quoted in weekly amounts.

Income

Statutory funding	Included in full
Studentship/sponsorship	Included in full
Care leavers bursary	Not included
Postgraduate/study loan	Any tuition fee element is not included
Means tested benefits (housing, tax credits etc.)	Included in full
Child benefit	Not included
Net earnings	Not included for statutory funded students, however will be included in full for self-funding students
Savings	Included in full excluding any element that is a result of current statutory funding
Parental/ third party contribution	Included in full and including where accommodation has been paid by a third party
Received child support	Included in full
Partner’s income	Included in full

Expenditure

Food	£35 set figure
Sundries (clothes, socialising, mobile phone, etc.)	£27 set figure
Utilities (electricity, gas, water, internet, etc.)	£24 set figure
The above are combined to give the Everyday Living Cost (ELC) used to assess self-funded students	£86 set figure
Child(ren)	£67 set figure per child
Accommodation	£100 cap on private rented for a single student excluding utilities No cap for 1st year student’s in Southampton University accommodation £124 cap including utilities for continuing students in Southampton University Halls and private rented Halls These caps increase for couples No cap for student’s with a mortgage No cap for student’s with a child(ren)
Travel to university	Only included if further than 1.5 miles from the university Calculated on attending university for 3 days per week
Course costs	£10 set figure except for: £12 for Health Science students £15 for year 2 WSA and music students £25 for year 3 WSA and music students
OFSTED-registered child care	Included in full (we will take into consideration whether the number of sessions is appropriate for the number of study hours)
Vehicle costs (mot, insurance, wear and tear, etc.)	This is not included for the majority of students. Where it has been agreed we will use £25 set figure
Travel Home	We will use set zones to identify the cost of travel. We will use 3 trips per year for travel in the UK. We will calculate the cost of travel to non UK countries and will include 1 trip as standard.
Glasses/Prescription	Any reasonable amount will be included in full
Prescriptions	£2 set figure
Debts	Only debts that have been reviewed and are part of a payment plan will be included (we do not include credit cards and overdrafts if these are a concern then you may wish to discuss this with the Advice Centre)
Partner’s expenditure	Set figures applied where appropriate

The standard assessment length is 52 weeks

Final year students will be assessed over 39 weeks unless documentation is provided confirming longer attendance is required.

Part-time students will be assessed over actual time at university.

The assessment period may be altered at the discretion of the advisor depending on individual circumstances.

Any expenditure that you wish to be considered will need to be supported by documentation.

Click here to review the possible outcomes of an application