PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Students: Loans (8 December 2015)

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of the implications for the financial position of students of offering loans to 19 to 23 year olds who are undertaking further education.

Asked by:
Angela Rayner (Labour)

Loans have been available to those aged 24 and over studying at levels 3 and 4 in further education since April 2013. We are now making them available to those aged 19-23 and extending them to levels 5 and 6. Advanced Learner Loans remove the barrier of paying up-front fees for courses.

Learners do not repay their loan until they can afford to. Repayments on the loan are taken when the individual is earning more than £21,000 per annum and is at the rate of 9% of their earnings above this level.

Loans enhance shared responsibility for skills funding, recognising that much of the benefit of advanced vocational study goes to the learner.

Answered by:
Nick Boles (Independent)
18 January 2016