Independent and estranged students

You will be considered as independent if:

• you’re 25 or over
• you’ve been married or in a civil partnership
• you care for a child under 18
• you’ve financially supported yourself for at least 3 years prior to the first day of the first academic year of your course
• you have no living parents
• your parents cannot be traced or it’s not possible to contact them
• you’re permanently estranged from your parents
• you’re a ‘care leaver’ who has been in the care of your local authority between the ages of 14 or 16, depending on when you started your course

 

Estranged students

You can apply for student finance as an estranged student if:

• you’re under 25 years old 
• you’re estranged from your parents 

Being estranged from your parents means you’ve not had any verbal or written contact with them for at least 12 months and this is unlikely to change. 

If you’ve had contact with your parents within the last 12 months you can still apply, but you’ll need to give a full explanation of the nature of the contact. This would be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. 

If you apply as an estranged student, you do not need to send your parents' financial information. You could still be entitled to the maximum amount of student finance. 

You may also be assessed as estranged if you later stop contact with your parents or meet any of the estrangement criteria later in the academic year.  

Each estrangement application is looked at on a case-by-case basis. 

Care leavers

If you started your course on or after 1 August 2018, you can apply for student finance as a care leaver if:

• you've been in the care of, or been given accommodation by your local authority
• you were in care for at least 13 weeks
• your time in care ended after you turned 14

If you started your course before 1 August 2018, you can apply for student finance as a care leaver if:

• you've been in the care of, or been given accommodation by your local authority
• you were in care for at least 13 weeks
• your time in care ended before you turned 16
• you haven't reconciled with your parents since leaving care

You can apply as a care leaver if you've been placed in foster care by your Local Authority (LA). If you're being fostered by a family member, God parent or family friend, you may have to apply as an independent student.

If you've been officially adopted by your foster parent, then we'll use their household income details to work out how much you can get.

Submitting evidence

If you’re 25 or over

You don't need to submit evidence, as you’ll already be considered an independent student.

You’ve been married or in a civil partnership

You only need to send evidence if you’re a returning student and your status has changed. If your status has changed since you applied, you should submit a copy of your marriage or civil partnership certificate, or a decree nisi/absolute if you’re divorced or separated.

You care for a child under 18

You should submit a copy of evidence showing that you’re caring for them, such as:

• all pages of your most recent Tax Credits Award Notice naming you and all your children
• all pages of your most recent Universal Credit Award Notice naming you and the number of
• children on your claim
• all pages of your most recent Child Benefit letter naming all your children (this can be in your name or your partners)

We can accept downloads or screenshots of your Universal Credit statement or Child Benefit letter from your online account if you don’t have a paper copy. All pages must be clear and present.

You’ve financially supported yourself for at least 3 years

You should submit copies of your payslips, P60s or benefits letters showing that you had enough money to reasonably support yourself.

You have no living parents

You should submit copies of death certificates for both parents.

Your parents cannot be traced or it’s not possible to contact them

You should submit a signed and dated letter from an independent person (such as a doctor or social worker) explaining your situation.

You're estranged from your parents

You can download a ‘confirmation of estrangement form’ from your online account.  

You can also submit a supporting statement from an independent third party who can confirm your estrangement.  

You may be asked to give evidence of your estrangement each time you apply, but this will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.    

Supporting statements 

A supporting statement is a letter that’s written by an independent third party with good standing in the community. They must be able to show knowledge that you’ve not had verbal or written contact with your parents. 

 A supporting statement could be: 

• a letter from a member of staff at your school or college which explains that they knew about the difficult relationship whilst you were at school and your subsequent estrangement 
•  a letter from your doctor explaining that you’ve consistently and historically reported difficulties associated with your estrangement 
•  a letter from a social worker or local authority that shows they were aware of your difficult situation, or they allocated you a child protection order 
•  a letter from a counsellor or an organisation such as National Association of People Abused in Childhood or Karma Nirvana, that confirms you’ve been seeking support for your estrangement  
•  a letter from a housing support worker that may have helped you find accommodation after you left home 
•  a letter from a member of the clergy, a rabbi or imam that explains they were aware of the difficulties in your family and your subsequent estrangement 
•  a statement of incident from the police that shows any callouts, arrests or cautions involved in the case 

 Secondary supporting statements 

You can also send secondary supporting statements to provide more details about your circumstances, but these can’t be sent as evidence on their own.  

A secondary supporting statement could be: 

• a letter from other members of your family, a family friend or partner  
•  a letter from an independent person that states you’ve told this person about your circumstances recently 
•  a letter from anyone that hasn’t known you for a long period of time, for example, statements from your university student support officer 
•  a letter from your parents that declares the estrangement - this would be considered a communication within the last 12 months and isn’t valid to verify your estrangement

You may be asked to give supporting statements each time you apply, but this will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. 

Supporting statement checklist 

Before you submit your supporting statements, check that you’ve included the information they need. 

Have you made your circumstances clear? 

If you feel comfortable enough, explain your situation in your own words and make a timeline of key events. 

Have you provided as many statements as you can? 

You can provide as many supporting statements as you’d like but at least one of these statements needs to be from an independent person with good standing in the community.  
 

A person with good standing in the community could be: 

• a member of staff from your school or college 
• a doctor 
• a social worker 
• a counsellor 
• a housing support officer 
• a member of the clergy, a rabbi or imam 

 Are your statements suitable? 

Make sure that your statements from independent persons are on headed paper where possible and includes a telephone number so they can be contacted. 

Have you sent all your statements together? 

The quickest and easiest way to provide evidence is by uploading it to your online account 
If you’re sending evidence by post, send all your statements together in the same envelope where possible. Keep copies of your supporting statements from all years that you submit them. 

You are a care leaver

You should submit a letter from the local authority confirming that you:

• were under their care
• have now left their care
• are a care leaver under the Social Services and Wellbeing Act (Wales) 2014.

Other support sources

If you need to talk about something urgently, you can contact Samaritans for support.

If you’re an abuse survivor and want help with processing and understanding your past, contact National Association for People Abused in Childhood for support.

If you’re experiencing family estrangement as a result of escaping forced marriage or honour abuse, you can contact Karma Nirvana for support.