Supporting your child's or partner’s student finance application

If your child or partner is applying for student finance, we may ask you to give us your details so we can use your household income to work out how much they can get. This is so they can get the maximum amount that they’re entitled to.

After they’ve applied we’ll send you an email to support their application. You should follow the instructions in the email to support their application online - don't send us a P60, unless we ask you for it.

1. Sign in to or create your student finance account

You’ll need to create an online account for yourself.

Don't use your child or partner’s account to tell us your details, you must use your own separate account. If you and your partner are both supporting an application, your partner will also need to create or sign in to their own separate online account.

If you’ve supported an application previously or you’ve applied for student finance in the past, you should sign into your existing online account. Don’t worry if you’ve forgotten your login details, you can reset them on the login page.

If you’re supporting an application that has already been approved

If the student has applied late, we may automatically approve them for the minimum amount of student finance, to ensure they have some money for near the start of their course. This means you may not be able to link to the student's application through your online account.

If they still want to apply for the higher amount of Maintenance Grant, you should give us details to allow us to use your household income by uploading a PFF2 form (355KB) to your online account instead.

What to do if you don't get an email from us

You should be able to link to the student’s application and give us your details online by typing in their Customer Reference Number. Follow the instructions on our ‘how to’ guide to support an application with your household income details'.

If you’re unable to link to the student’s application online, you can upload a PFF2 form (355KB) to your account instead.

2. Giving us your details

From 6 November, you’ll be asked to give us your National Insurance number to support an application, so we can check your income details with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

We’ll check your household income for the tax year:

• 2022-23 if you’re supporting a student’s 2024 to 2025 application
• 2021-22 if you’re supporting a student’s 2023 to 2024 application

We use this tax year as it’s the most up to date information HMRC holds for everyone.

You’ll need to let us know if you’ve:

• paid into private pensions
• made additional voluntary contributions
• children (other than the student) who depend on you financially

If you don't have a National Insurance number, then you’ll need to complete a paper form and provide supporting documents to show how much you’ve earned.

3. After you’ve supported the application

Once you’ve submitted your income details, it can take us up to 6 to 8 weeks to process them and work out how much student finance they can get. As soon as we’ve done this, we’ll let the student know.

If we need anything else from you, we’ll email you to let you know.