Student Finance England (SFE) will determine if you are independent or if you are dependent on your parents.
If you're dependent, SFE will take your parents' income into account when working out household income and the amount you might receive.
If you're independent, SFE won’t take your parents’ income into account when working out your household income and contribution. Note, however, that if you're married, in a civil partnership or over 25 and living with your partner, the income of your husband, wife, civil partner or partner is taken into account.
What’s an independent student?
You'll be considered independent if you:
- have the care of a person under the age of 18 on the first day of the academic year in which you’re applying for support
- are 25 or over on the first day of the academic year which you’re applying for support
- have been married or in a civil partnership before the start of the academic year, even if you’re now divorced or separated
- have no living parents
- have supported yourself for at least three years before the start of the course. This includes any time you were in paid, full-time employment; received any benefits; received any pension, allowance or other benefit because of your disability or by any reason of confinement, sickness or illness; received training under any scheme for the unemployed or other funding by any state authority or agency
- have parents but they cannot be traced or it’s not practical or possible to contact them
- have parents living outside the EU and an income assessment would put them in jeopardy, or it’s not reasonably practical for them to send funds to the UK if a contribution were assessed (this may apply to a student who’s a refugee)
- have not communicated with your parents for one year before the beginning of the academic year you’re applying for support for, or can demonstrate you’re permanently estranged from their parents
- are subject to certain exceptions: you were looked after by a local authority throughout any three-month period ending on or after the date you turned 16, and before the first day of the first academic year of their course.
Evidence
If you are, or have been, married or in a civil partnership, SFE will need to see your marriage certificate or civil partnership schedule.
If you’re applying as an independent student because you’ve supported yourself for three years or more, you must provide evidence to show how you’ve done this. If you’ve been working or claiming benefits you must provide written confirmation of this. Acceptable proof includes:
- photocopies of P60s or letters from employers (signed, dated and on headed paper) confirming the dates you worked there and your earnings
- for periods where you’ve claimed benefits, a letter from the DWP confirming the dates you claimed benefits and the type of benefits received
- if you have care of a child, the child's birth certificate and evidence you're caring for them. For example, evidence that you’re receiving Child Benefit or the child element of Universal Credit.
Estrangement
You might be defined as being estranged if you can show you have little or no contact with your biological or adoptive parents and receive no physical or financial support from them.
You don’t always have to provide reasons for the estrangement, but it could make it easier for SFE to award independent status. You ;must provide confirmation from a professional person, outside your family, who knows about your circumstances. That person must fill out an Estrangement Declaration form which can be downloaded from Gov.UK.
Other examples of evidence you could provide include:
- a letter from your social worker, if you have one
- if you claimed income support when you were under 18
- a letter from DWP showing you got benefits because of your situation
- if their relationship with their parents broke down while they were at school or college, a letter from an advice worker, personal tutor or teacher, confirming their circumstances
- if you've visited your doctor because of problems relating to the breakdown of your relationship with your parents, a letter from their doctor to confirm your circumstances.
To qualify for independent status through estrangement, you'll need to prove the lack of contact with your parents is permanent.
SFE normally expects students to have had no contact with their parents for at least 12 months, although this may not apply in exceptional circumstances. You won’t be able to apply for independent status because you don’t get on with your parents or don’t live with them. Similarly, you won’t be automatically able to apply for independent status because your parents refuse or don’t want to provide details of their income.