Did you know that you may be eligible for Student Finance Support towards the cost of attending college?
For students aged 16 to 18 living with family, when you apply for Student Finance you need to submit evidence of the household income evidence for your family. This might only be mum or dad, but could include a step-parent, or it might be another relative such as grandparents.
The household income must be less than £35,000 per year for whichever adults from your household. If you have younger brothers/sisters, we may be able to increase your income threshold – please do remember to tell us that on your application.
How to apply for Student Finance Support
The application portal for students to apply for Student Finance is now open for the 2025/26 academic year.
- Log into your college account (using the same username and password details when you applied for a course). If you can’t remember your login details, you can recover your account details.
- Look for the “Apply for Student Financial Support” button on your account dashboard once you’ve logged in and use this button to apply. This button is a blue piggy bank.
- You will be asked to upload your household income evidence. Please read our guide to Student Finance Income Evidence to find out which evidence you will need to upload when you apply for Student Finance. We have included images for each scenario so you can see what we need to look at to assess your application. The address on the Income Evidence you provide must match your home address on your student records. Please have your evidence ready before you start your application, although you can save and go back in to complete your application later if you need to you. If you are a 16 – 18 progressing student, you will not need to upload new evidence for 2025/26.
- We will ask you to complete a series of questions using drop down answer options regarding your household situation, and support needs such as travel or childcare costs you will be asked to agree to the terms and conditions, please read these carefully.
- Once you have reviewed and checked everything click complete and your application will be submitted to us.
- We will then contact you via the e mail address you have given as your personal email address at the time of applying or enrolling.
Important Information
- Please ensure you have submitted the correct evidence to avoid any delays in processing. Please note your application will not be looked at if you have not provided your household income evidence.
- Before we can process your application, you will need to be fully enrolled.
- Forms will be assessed in date received order subject to funding.
- It is your responsibility to keep checking your emails for communications from Student.Finance@nottinghamcollege.ac.uk. We might email you requesting additional information, or to let you know that your support is in place. We will not re-imburse you for missed support where you have not been checking your Inbox (and spam/junk folders too).
If you haven’t created an account to apply for a course yet, the student finance application section steps above can be completed at the same time that you create your account and apply for a course.
You can watch the video for more information.
Student Finance - How to apply
Student finance income evidence
Please read through this information to find out which evidence you will need to upload when you apply for Student Finance. We have included images for each scenario so you can visually see what we need to look at to assess your application. The address on the Income Evidence you provide must match your home address on your student records.
Ensuring you upload your Income Evidence perfectly the first time around ensures there are no delays to your application.
Student Finance - Submitting evidence
We will need to see the most recent payslips for anyone working within your household. If they are paid monthly, you will need to upload the most recent pay slip. If they are paid weekly you will need to upload the 4 most recent pay slips and if fortnightly 2 pay slips. The person’s name and address must be clearly visible on the payslips.
If anyone in your household has a copy of their P60 for April 2025 you can upload this instead of payslips.
We need to see your most recent Universal Credit Statement to process your application. We need to see the Full Universal Credit Breakdown, which is normally 4-5 screenshots. Make sure it contains your name, the payment date, any income from your employer and the total Universal Credit amount.
We need to see all pages of the latest Tax Credit Award Notice for 2025/26 as this will show any income for 2024/25 or which benefits you are in receipt of. This is normally dated after 5th April 2025 and is 4-6 pages long.
If you or anyone in your household is receiving benefits, we will need to see a letter that is dated within the last 3 months. If the letter is older, you will need to upload a recent bank statement showing the relevant benefits going into the account.
We can accept the following means tested benefits: Job Seekers Allowance (JSA),Employment Support Allowance (ESA) and Income Support.
When uploading evidence of self-employment you will need to provide us with the latest Tax Return that you have sent to HRMC or a Statement of Accounts from an accountant. If you are uploading a Statement of Accounts these need to look official ideally on headed paper or a company stamp with name and address of the company. We will need to see the entire document showing the income for the year. We are usually looking for the gross profit figure on self-employment documents.
If anyone in your household has left their job you can provide us with their P45. We can accept this if the leaving date is close to the time of application as this shows they may still be waiting on a new job or claim on benefits. However, if the leaving date is about 4 or more months away, we will need to see other income evidence.
If you are an Asylum Seeker you will need to upload the below evidence:
- G4S / Serco Document and Your Home Office Letter
- ARC Card and Aspen Card
