Stage 2: Making an application
Postgraduate Master's courses

Information for parents and partners

You might be asked to provide information about your income if your child or partner has applied for student finance. We’ll use this information to work out how much student finance they can get.


Giving us your income details

Once your child or partner has applied for student finance, you’ll get an email with a link to provide your details. You can contact us if you’d prefer to give your details using a paper form.

You’ll need to give your household income details from a previous tax year. This will be the:

  • 2019 to 2020 tax year if your child or partner is applying for the 2021 to 2022 academic year
  • 2018 to 2019 tax year if your child or partner is applying for the 2020 to 2021 academic year

If you’re supporting your child’s application

Your household income is the total of:

  • your income
  • your partner’s income, if you live with them (even if you did not live with them during the previous tax year)
  • the student’s unearned income, for example from savings, investments or property

If you’re supporting your partner’s application

Your household income is the total of:

  • your income
  • the student’s income, if you live with them (even if you did not live with them during the previous tax year)

If your income has gone down

You can give your details for the current tax year if you think your household income will drop by 15% or more when the tax year you’ve been asked to give details for.

Submitting evidence

After you’ve given us your details, HM Revenue and Customs will check whether the information matches their records.

You might be asked to provide evidence of your:

  • income, if the information you’ve given us does not match their records
  • marital status, if you’re separated, divorced or widowed

We’ll tell you what evidence you need to submit.

Changing your details

You must tell us if:

  • you made a mistake
  • your circumstances change, such as your marital status or if you have another child

Do this by submitting a form:

If your income goes down

You can ask us to use your household income details for the current tax year instead of the tax year you gave us details about.

Contacting us

If you contact us, we cannot discuss anything about your child or partner without their permission. Find out how they can give us permission.