When you apply for a course at university, it’s not only the course details that you should know about. Many students across the UK are eligible for and apply for student finance. This is loan is used to cover costs such as tuition fees and your living expenses at university.
To put it simply, SLC disbursements refer to the payments made from the Student Loans Company (SLC) to you throughout university. When you check your bank account and your student finance account, the payments made will be displayed as from “SLC Disbursements”.
There are many different components to student finance. If you want to learn more about how and when SLC disbursements are paid, I recommend you read on.
What does SLC disbursement mean?
As mentioned above, SLC disbursements are paid from SLC. The SLC is funded by the UK Government and provides student loans. The SLC’s main function is to pays loans to students and collects their loan repayments. This applies to students across the UK.
Student Finance England (SFE) forms part of the SLC and this is where your loan eligibility comes from if you a student from England.
If you are a student from Scotland, the Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS) will assess your student finance applications and review how much you are eligible for. This service does not pay student loans.
The SLC disbursement payments only cover the payments from the SLC and not from any alternative sources of funding like scholarships. You can find out more about bursaries and grants here on Think Student.
The loans from the SLC are separated into two categories: maintenance loans and tuition fee loans.
Tuition fee loans are given to cover the total cost of the tuition fees charged by your university for your course.
Maintenance loans on the other hand are given to be a student’s biggest source of income during their time at university. It will cover your accommodation costs, food bills as well as other living expenses.
Unlike tuition fees, maintenance loans are mainly dependent on your household income and other factors like where you will live during your course.
You can check out a more thorough description of the eligibility criteria for the maintenance loans here on Think Student.
When do you get SLC disbursements?
Your SLC disbursement payment for your maintenance loan will come to your bank account in three instalments per academic year. These instalments are approximately equal and are usually paid at the beginning of each term. You will receive more in your final term of the year.
SLC disbursement payments in three instalments, the first one of which you’ll get at the beginning of the academic year.
You will have to reapply for student finance every year until your course ends. Therefore, it is important to keep your details as up to date as possible. This includes details like your household income or any changes to your bank account which could impact your SLC disbursement payments.
Your student finance account will allow you to keep track of all your statements and letters from SFE or check the progress of any pending applications. You can also check how SLC disbursement payments you will receive each term.
You can register for a student finance account here.
If you apply for student finance before the deadline, you should get your SLC disbursement at the start of the new academic year.
On the other hand, your tuition fee loans are instead paid directly to your university regularly.
For more information on this, check out this guide by the government here for a full step-by-step process to applying for student finance. You can also read this guide by Think student.
Can you suspend your SLC disbursements?
You may be in a situation where you must stop your student finance payments. This can happen if you decide to suspend your studies. To do this, you will need to contact the service you have made you student finance application with.
If you are a student from England, you can contact SFE here. In you are a student from Scotland, you can contact SAAS here. If you a student from Wales, you can contact Student Finance Wales here. If you are a student from Northern Ireland, you can contact Student Finance NI here.
You choose to only suspend your studies and not drop out of the course. If you choose to do this, you will usually be able to postpone your SLC disbursements until you return to your studies.
If you have suspended your studies due to an illness, you may be eligible for the Disabled Student’s Allowance (DSA). You can find out more about the DSA here.
Please check out these other related Think Student articles to learn more about student finance in the UK.