Financial hardship

You can claim for financial hardship if you’ve previously been paid too much loan or grant, and your student finance has been reduced as a result. Our financial hardship claim process is not funding paid in addition to your student finance.

If you’re in financial hardship because you’ve had a reassessment of your entitlement and the change will put you at a financial disadvantage, you should seek help as soon as possible.

For example, if you’ve had a previous academic year’s overpayment deducted from your funding the financial hardship team could defer the deduction if it will leave you with not enough to live on this academic year. You may also be eligible to receive continued student finance payments during a period of suspension.

We look at every application for financial hardship on an individual basis. Please note there is no guarantee your claim will be accepted.

What to do

You might want to speak to your university or college about your circumstances. They can offer help and advice with any financial or personal problems. They may also be able to direct you to other people or organisations that can help.

Let us know as soon as you can if you’re in financial hardship. You should contact us to discuss your options.

How to apply

You’ll need to contact us, and we’ll send you a ‘Financial Hardship Confirmation’ form. Your university or college can also request the form for you and should be able to help you complete the form itself.

On the form, you’ll give us details of your income and any financial outgoings. It might be helpful to find this information before you start filling it in. You’ll also need to send us some documents with the form, including bank statements for all of your bank accounts, these can be digital copies.

Don’t worry if you don’t have all your supporting information and details to hand, you should still notify us about your situation so that your claim for financial hardship can made as early as possible.

Sending us evidence

You can return the completed form and evidence to us by digital upload on your online account or to:

Student Finance Wales
PO Box 211
Llandudno Junction
LL30 9FU

After you’ve applied

We know this can be a difficult time for you and we’ll try review your application as soon as possible.

If you need impartial money and debt advice:

visit www.citizensadvice.org.uk/debt-and-money
speak to your university or college.

Getting paid

If you’ve been successful under our financial hardship process and are due a student finance payment, this will be paid in 7 working days and any future payments will be updated also.