student finance evidence cover letter 2022

How to Write a Cover Letter for Student Finance

In University by Think Student Editor December 22, 2022 Leave a Comment

Sorting out your finances and funding can be difficult at any point. However, due to the rather complex systems and there often being a lack of information, it can be even worse for university students when applying for student finance. The problems especially arise when it comes to the more nitty-gritty parts of sorting out student finance, such as with your actual application for it and cover letters.

Continue reading to learn more about writing a cover letter to secure your student finance. This article will answer your burning questions about what this cover letter is all about, whether you need one and a step-by-step guide for writing your own.

Table of Contents

What is a student finance cover letter?

In general terms, a cover letter is normally used for a job application. It is a short letter, only about 5 paragraphs long, that is meant to essentially convince a potential employer to hire you. For more information about this, check out this guide by the National Careers Service.

However, for student finance, this cover letter can be pretty different and is at times less clear. While it may be in reference to the general student finance application, your student finance form. To learn more about these, check out this governmental guide .

A cover letter for student finance is more likely to be in reference to applying for additional finance for compelling personal reasons . This may also be known as discretionary funding.

This is where you are applying for additional funding from student finance to support you in your studies after having put on hold or withdrawn from your previous studies . This pause or withdrawal from your studies will need to have been unavoidable for it to come under the bracket of compelling personal reasons.

The idea of this cover letter is that you will need to explain your situation and why this means that you need more funding to study . You will also need to provide some form of evidence of your situation. For more information about this, check out this guide by the University of Manchester.

Do you need a cover letter for your student finance application?

Whether you need a cover letter for your student finance application will depend on what kind of application it is . For example, if this is just the regular student finance application, you will generally be able to apply online and so you won’t need a cover letter . To learn more about applying for funding, check out this UCAS guide .

However, if this application is for additional finance for compelling personal reasons, you will need a cover letter in order to explain your situation . Compelling personal reasons is an overarching term for a range of reasons for why someone may have had to stop or pause their studies. These can include but are not limited to mental or physical health issues, bereavement, pregnancy, or caring responsibilities.

The cover letter is important for discretionary funding as your application for this funding is much more of an appeal that the regular student finance application. In this way, your application for discretionary funding due to compelling personal reasons may not be accepted. To learn more about this, check out this guide by the Sheffield Hallam Students’ Union.

How long should your cover letter be for student finance?

While there’s not particularly an exact word count for how long your student finance compelling personal reasons cover letter should be, it mostly like will only need to fit about one side of A4 . In fact, considering how it is in some ways structurally similar to the cover letter of a job application, it is likely that once again you may only need about 5 or so paragraphs, as mentioned above.

While it is unlikely to be very long, you will need to make sure that you include everything . Included in your student finance cover letter will need to be:

Your personal details – This is including your name, address, ways of contacting you such as email or phone number and your student finance reference number.
An explanation of what you are requesting – This is essentially to explain what type of funding you need, whether this is a reinstatement of funding from the year you couldn’t complete or if it is the continuation of your maintenance loan during your suspension of studies.
An explanation of your situation – This is where you would explain what your compelling personal reasons for pausing or suspending your studies are and how they have affected you.
An explanation of the timeframe – This is where you would explain when the problem(s) began and how long they have been an issue for.
An explanation of how your situation has changed – This is for you to explain why the same situation that suspended your studies is unlikely to happen again.

For more information about all of this, check out this guide by Northumbria University.

How do you write a cover letter for student finance? (step-by-step guide)

Writing your cover letter for compelling personal reasons to student finance is no easy feat. However, it is such an important part of your application that it is important that know how to do it.

The following steps will take you through a step-by-step guide on how to write your cover letter to student finance. The information included in the following sections is taken from this guide by Aberystwyth University and this guide by Northumbria University. To find a template of a compelling personal reasons cover letter, you can check out this guide by Nottingham Trent University.

Step 1: Set up your student finance cover letter

The first thing you need to do when writing your compelling personal reasons cover letter is to properly set it up. By this, I mean that you need to essentially get your personal details section written and then plan what you’re going to put in the rest of the cover letter.

Your personal details section is essentially the part where you are actually setting it up as a formal letter. As mentioned above, this section is going to need to include your name, your student finance number, your address, your email/ phone number as well as the date of the letter .

Then, I would suggest planning your other sections to make it easier to write them up when it comes to it. To learn more about what the key points of each of these sections are, continue reading the following steps.

Step 2: Explain what you a requesting from student finance

For student finance to be able to help you, they will need to know what you need help with. This is why it is so important that you explain what you are requesting from them in your cover letter. It can also help to put it at the start to get it out of the way before your other sections.

However, you may also feel that it fits best at the end to wrap up your cover letter. The choice on how to structure your cover letter is up to you. To get you started, you may wish to use phrases, such as “I am writing to request…”.

Step 3: Explain what your situation was to student finance

For student finance to be able to properly consider your application, they will need to know what the circumstances that led you to suspend your studies were. In this part of your cover letter, you will need to explain your compelling personal reasons. This will need to be done in some depth so make sure you put enough focus on it .

This is the part where you would explain what the situation was, how it affected you and when your problems started and ended. You will also want to write about the emotional and/or physical effects it has had on your wellbeing, which have made you unable to carry on with your studies. To do this, you may want to use phrases, such as “I experienced…” or “I suffered with…”.

You will also need to include evidence of your situation, such as a medical note for health issues or a death certificate for bereavement. While this will not be in the cover letter itself, you will likely need to refer to where this evidence comes from and what type of evidence it is .

Step 4: Explain how your situation has now improved to student finance

In order to convince student finance that the funding will go to good use, you have to explain to them how your situation has changed so that you suspending your studies again is unlikely to happen . To do this, you may wish to describe any treatment you have had and explain how it has improved your situation or describe how your situation has otherwise improved.

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Student Finance England – ‘How to’ guide

This guide will provide you with answers to the most common questions that undergraduate students are currently asking us.

Applies to England

Guidance for Wales

Check our current timescales page to find out when to expect an update on your application or on information you’ve sent!

Checking the status of your application

Once you’ve applied, you’ll want to keep up to date with the progress of your application.

How to check the status of your application

Visit our guidance page for more information on checking the status of your application .

Change your university, college or course details

You may need to update your university, college or course details if you change your mind about where or what you want to study, or if your circumstances change. Follow these steps if the start date for the course you initially applied for has not passed yet:

Sign in to your online account at www.gov.uk/student-finance-register-login
Select ‘Undergraduate student finance applications’
Select the application you wish to change
Under the heading ‘Manage your student finance’, select ‘View and manage your applications’
Select ‘Change your application’
Select ‘Change your application’ again
Select ‘University/college and course’

If the course you initially applied for has already started, you’ll need to ask your university or college to send us a request to update your university, college or course details on your application.

It can take up to 6 weeks to approve any changes to your application, so it’s important to make any changes straight away. To ensure we can process your changes as quickly as possible, we ask you do not contact us during this time.

How to change your student finance application

For more information, visit our updating your student finance details page .

Change how much Maintenance Loan you’ve requested

After you’ve applied for student finance, you may want to change the amount of Maintenance Loan you’ve asked for. You should be able to do this in your online account up until one month before the end of the academic year .

You should follow these steps:

Sign in to your online account at www.gov.uk/student-finance-register-login
Select ‘Loan amount(s)’

It will normally take 4 to 6 weeks to process the change but could take up to 8 weeks between July and September during our busy period.

If you’re unable to change your loan request amount online, you’ll need to compete and submit a Loan Request Form instead. You’ll be able to get this from your online account.

If you’re asked to upload evidence for your student finance application

You should only upload evidence to your online account if we’ve asked you to do so and only upload your documents once. If you upload evidence we haven’t asked for, or we get more than one copy of the same thing, it could delay your application.

If you need to send us more than one document, it can help to upload these together. This means we can review all of your evidence at the same time and process your application quicker.

Follow these steps to upload evidence to your account:

Select the application you wish to upload evidence for
Under the heading ‘Manage your student finance’, select ‘Upload supporting evidence’
Follow the instructions to upload a file from your computer or mobile phone, the file cannot be larger than 16MB

If you’ve uploaded evidence and ‘your actions to complete’ don’t update, it doesn’t mean we don’t have your documents. Once we’ve checked what you’ve sent, we’ll update your actions list.

You don’t need to contact us to check that we’ve got your documents, if we need anything else, we’ll be in touch.

How to upload evidence

For more information, visit our evidence page .

Cancel a student finance application

You may need to cancel your application if you’ve changed your mind about going to university or college, or if you’ve accidentally completed the wrong type of application.

To cancel your application, follow these steps:

Select the application you wish to cancel
Select ‘Cancel your application’
Select ‘Cancel your application’ again to confirm

If you’ve already registered on your course and want to cancel your student finance application, you’ll need to contact your university or college to do this for you.

Registering on your course

You need to register/enrol on your course at the start of your first term each year, otherwise we won’t be able to send you any payments!

Check your university or college’s website or contact a member of staff who works there for information on how to register or enrol on your course. Usually, you can do this online without having to visit your university or college.

Paying your tuition fees

Your Tuition Fee Loan is paid directly to your university or college in three instalments during the academic year.

We cannot make any tuition fee payments to them until they have confirmed that you’re attending your course. They will automatically send this information to us after your course has started.

If you’re studying on a distance learning course, your university or college will usually confirm your attendance two weeks after the course start date. As a result, it can take 3 to 4 weeks for your Tuition Fee Loan to be paid.

If your university or college have confirmed your attendance in error, they should send us an update confirming the error and correct the details on your application. This will not affect your future entitlement to student finance.

You do not need to contact us to confirm your attendance.

Update your bank details in your online account

It’s important to keep your bank details up to date to make sure you get your payments at the start of each term. A few points to remember before updating them:

we can only make payments to a UK bank or building society account
the account must be in your own name – we cannot make payments into third party accounts under any circumstance
if you’re expecting a payment - we require 4 working days’ notice to change your bank details so that the payment is made to your new bank account. Any changes made within this time will not take effect before the payment is due

It’s quick and easy to update them online when you need to, just follow these steps:

Select ‘Your personal details’ from the menu at the top of the page
Next to ‘Bank account details’, select ‘Change’
Confirm your old bank or building society details for security
Enter your new bank or building society account details

Check your payment schedule and amounts

To help you budget and prepare for your next payment, it will help to know how much and when you’re getting paid. You can check this in your online account, follow these steps:

Select the application for the payments you wish to check
Under the heading ‘Manage your student finance’, select ‘View your payments’

How to check your payment schedule

For more information, visit our payment page .

Support a student finance application with your household income details

If your child or partner has applied for extra Maintenance Loan, we’ll email you to ask for details of your household income. We’ll use this to work out how much student finance they can get.

Follow the instructions in the email to give us your details.

If you don’t receive an email, or you’re supporting more than one student, follow these steps to give us your details:

Sign in or create an online account at www.gov.uk/student-finance-register-login .
Select ‘Undergraduate student finance applications’.
Choose the academic year you’re giving your details for.
Under the heading ‘Start something else’, select ‘Support a student’s application for student finance’.
Scroll down and select ‘Support an application for student finance’.
Type in your child or partner’s details so we can link you to their application.

Get more information on providing your household income details .

If you’re asked to upload evidence to support a student finance application

After you’ve provided details about your household income, we may contact you to ask for evidence. If this happens, you can upload the evidence to us through your online account. Follow these steps if we request evidence from you:

Select ‘Upload evidence’

Keep in mind, you should only send evidence to us if we’ve asked you to do so, otherwise it could delay the student’s application!

Visit our guidance page for more information on supporting an application .

Find out who can get student finance, how much you can get and how to apply

Visit www.gov.uk/student-finance for information on:

who can get student finance
how much you can get
extra funding available for students with a disability or dependants
how to apply

For further information on student finance, visit studentfinance.campaign.gov.uk/ .

Reset your log in details

If it’s been a while since you signed in to your online account, you may have forgotten some details. Don’t worry, you can reset or recover these details quickly and easily online:

Visit www.gov.uk/student-finance-register-login
Select the green ‘Start now’ button
Select ‘Forgotten your email address or CRN?’ or ‘Forgotten your password?’
Then just follow the instructions to recover or reset your details

How to reset your password and secret answer

Update your contact details

It’s important you keep your contact details such as your email address and mobile number up to date in case we need to get in touch with important information about your account. It’s quick and easy to update this through your online account, just follow these steps:

Select ‘Change’ next to whichever details you wish to update
Enter your new contact details and select ‘Continue’

How to update your personal details

For more information, visit our updating your student finance details guidance page .

Updates to this page

Information has been added about how customers can update how much Maintenance Loan they've requested.

Added link to current timescales page

Updated link to 'How to check your payment schedule' film

Updates have been made to 'If you’re asked to upload evidence for your student finance application' section

Added guidance on supporting more than one student.

Updates have been made to the 'Change your university, college or course details' section

Added new section, 'Paying your tuition fees'.

Added YouTube film to Payment schedule section

A YouTube walkthrough film has been added under 'Change your university, college or course details'

When uploading evidence for a student finance application, you can now upload files up to 16MB in size.

First published.

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