The last two weeks have been unprecedented for many people across the country following the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
Throughout the period of national mourning, we have continued our essential work, ensuring Maintenance Loan payments are being made to students as they start university or college. We have paid £1bn of Maintenance Loan funding to students since the beginning of September*, with payments continuing over the coming weeks as the academic year gets underway.
We were scheduled to make our largest payment of the first term on Monday (19 September). However, due to the Bank Holiday and the historic events taking place, we brought this forward, making more than 300,000 payments, to the value of £655m, last Friday (16 September). In some cases, students had yet to enrol or their confirmation of attendance had not been received from their university or college, so haven't yet received their funding. Further payments will be made today and over the coming weeks as we receive information from the education providers.
We remain on track to increase the number of students we have processed and ready to pay by term start - enabling them to invest in their futures through access to higher and further education.
It will come as no surprise that September remains our busiest time and this is reflected in the high demand for
