Interrupting your studies: understand the financial implications

What does interrupting studies mean?

Interrupting your studies means you are taking a break from your course with the intention of returning later. This guide sets out some important information about how these processes work from a financial support perspective.

This information for full-time undergraduate Home / EU students in receipt of Student Finance England (SFE) funding.

Get advice

There are many reasons why students consider making a change to their studies or taking time out. This is an important decision, so it’s important that you explore your options before you decide which route to take.

It is always a good idea to think through why you want to make a change to your course and get specialist advice to help you with your decision. You should always get academic advice from your Personal Tutor.

Before deciding, you should also consider that:

  • Your decision may have an impact on the SFE/EU funding available for your current course or any future course
  • The date on which you make a change to your studies may an impact on the tuition fees you owe or any refund you might be entitled to
  • You may need to continue to pay for your accommodation or halls of residence. You might have signed a contract for a set period so if you decide to leave you may still be liable to pay rent
  • How you will support yourself financially while not attending your course

How do I interrupt my studies?

If you have chosen to interrupt you will need to complete the 'Interruption of Studies' form and return this to the Student CentreGo to the Support and services page . Before you interrupt it is important to check if you are liable to pay any tuition fees.

SFE pay your tuition fees in three instalments around the start of each term. Fees are not paid to the University until your attendance is confirmed to SFE. When you interrupt, withdraw or transfer your studies the University will inform SFE. If the change is reported before the next fee payment date is due, your next instalment of Tuition Fee should not be paid.

If a Tuition Fee Loan instalment is paid in error for a period that you were not liable to pay fees, SFE will recover this money from the University.

The tuition fee liability dates policies can be found in the University’s Student Fees and Other Charges Policy (Section 6.11). This link can also be accessed on the Interruption of Studies form, which you will need to complete and sign before returning to the Student CentreGo to the Support and services page.

How your Student Finance England or EU funding may be affected

Interrupting before the start of the academic year

If you interrupt before the start of the academic year, the university will not confirm your attendance and registration to SFE/EU Team and your funding will stop. You will normally be eligible for your usual SFE funding to start again when you re-join the course. You must make an application to SFE or the EU Team, usually from March onwards, for your funding to start again at the beginning of the next academic year.

Your university Registry Office will report your interruption to Student Finance England (SFE) or the EU Team (if you are receiving the EU Fee Loan) via an electronic Change Of Circumstances. They can also confirm your resumption of studies date to SFE. 

When you plan to return to your course, you will need to complete the Resumption of Studies form and return this to your Registry via the Student CentreGo to the Support and services page.

To resume your funding after a year of interruption, you will need to make an application to SFE or the EU Team, usually from March onwards, for your funding to be available at beginning of the next academic year.

Enrolment counts as one year of funding

Once you have enrolled for the academic year, you are regarded as having used up one year of your SFE funding entitlement regardless of the actual length of time you attend your course. Even as little as one day of attendance or enrolment means you have used up one full year of your SFE funding entitlement. 

If you interrupt for more than two years, Student Finance England may treat you as a new student when you resume your course and your eligibility for funding would be considered under the eligibility rules in place at the time. 

Interrupting during the academic year

All future payments of your loans and grants will be suspended and re-calculated pro rata to the amount you are entitled to receive up to the date you interrupt. If you have received too much Maintenance Loan or grant/s, SFE will ask you to repay the amount overpaid. Please see the 'Overpayments' section below.  

Ill health and SFE 60-day extension of payment

If you interrupt due to ill health, you can continue to receive your student funding for a further 60 days after you interrupt. You must tick the box on your Interrupting Your Studies form stating that you are interrupting your studies on the grounds of health reasons and you must provide evidence of your ill health to your Registry Office. If this is accepted, your Registry can confirm this in their electronic report to SFE as your reason for interrupting. Alternatively, you can send evidence to SFE to request this yourself, but it will take longer to approve. 

Discretionary payments / financial hardship

SFE can, in theory, continue to fund you during your interruption. This is at their discretion and happens rarely. You will need to write to SFE requesting discretionary funding during your interruption by detailing your special circumstances and the financial difficulties you may encounter without SFE payments during this time. SFE will send you a Discretionary Payments form requesting evidence of your financial circumstances and commitments. 

What if I defer my modules?

When you defer your studies, you are usually requesting the opportunity to undertake your modules or exams at a later date. You must submit a Mitigating Circumstances claim to request this and provide medical or other evidence of the circumstances which affected your academic performance, leading to the need to defer.

If you defer all your modules which results in you no longer being in attendance on your course, you will not be entitled to SFE funding during the deferral period. SFE will regard this period in the same way as an interruption from studies.  If you continue to receive payments, you will be considered to have been overpaid. Please see the 'Overpayments' section below.

Contact the Student Advice TeamGo to the Student Advice page for more information on the financial implications of deferring. 

Social security benefits during interruption

Most full-time students are excluded from claiming benefits even during a period of interruption.

If you have dependent children or are in receipt of Disability Living Allowance or Personal Independence Payment, you may be eligible to claim benefits during the time you interrupt your studies. If you have interrupted your course due to ill health or because of caring responsibilities, you may be entitled to claim Universal Credit (or Job Seekers Allowance and Housing Benefit) once you are no longer ill or once your caring responsibilities have ended. You can claim until the date you resume the course or for one year, whichever is sooner. You must be available for and actively seeking work and be able to meet the commitments of your Job seeking agreement.

Council Tax exemption while interrupted

If you interrupt your studies, you will normally continue to be registered on your full-time course. You may request a student Council Tax exemption certificate from your Registry Office. If you withdraw from your course, you are no longer a student and consequently no longer eligible for Council Tax exemption as a student. 

You may request a Self-Service letter in your online Student Record.

Resuming studies

If you interrupted between academic years and are resuming your course from the point you interrupted, your student finance entitlement should not be affected.

If you interrupted during an academic year and need to repeat a semester or the whole year, the following sets out how your funding entitlement will be affected.

Repeating a year and SFE funding

If this is the first degree level course you have ever attended and the first time you have to repeat a year of your course you should still have your “gift year” of funding available. A “gift year” is an extra year of SFE funding. This can be used to fund your repeat year and entitles you to receive your usual SFE Loans and Grants during this time.

If you have already used up your gift year because of previous study or previous repeat years, you will not be entitled to receive a Tuition Fee Loan (or the Maintenance/Special Support Grant if applicable) for your repeat year unless compelling personal reasons caused you to repeat. Compelling Personal Reasons can retrospectively be considered for any earlier previous repeat years.

Additional year of SFE funding for Compelling Personal Reasons (CPR)

If your studies have been affected by 'Compelling Personal Reasons', e.g. illness, bereavement or personal difficulties, that have resulted in you having to repeat a year of your course, you can ask SFE to consider you eligible for loans and grants during this additional year, at their discretion. This is called a CPR year.

This is especially useful if you have used up your standard entitlement to Student Finance, as it is an additional year of full funding that includes a Tuition Fee Loan (and Maintenance/Special Support Grant if applicable). To be considered for a CPR year, you need to provide Student Finance England with evidence of the issues that affected your study and caused you to repeat and must ask them to consider this.

You should do this once you have re-applied for your funding for the next year of your course. You can also speak to the Student Advice TeamGo to the Student Advice page who can help you to apply for a CPR year and discuss with you how to evidence your CPR request.

SFE can backdate a CPR year if you did not apply for this at the time (e.g. you may have repeated an earlier year of your course and either used your “gift year” or funded the repeat year yourself). Again, you will need to provide evidence of the circumstances. If SFE approve this, it can mean that once a CPR year is backdated, your “gift year” is re-instated and available to use for your current repeat year instead. This is especially useful if you have no CPR for your current repeat year eg you are repeating purely because of academic reasons. Please contact the Student Advice TeamGo to the Student Advice page to discuss this further.

If you attended a degree level course prior to your current course but had to withdraw because of compelling personal reasons, SFE can also consider awarding a CPR year to cover the first year of a new degree course. Again, you must provide evidence. SFE will only ever award one year of additional funding and under this rule, it will always be awarded to cover the first year of your new course. Therefore, if you have studied on more than one degree course, or you repeated a year while attending your earlier course please contact the Student Advice TeamGo to the Student Advice page to check your funding entitlement for a new course.

Overpayments

You are only entitled to receive Student Finance when you are fully enrolled and attending your course. SFE will reassess your entitlement to Student Finance following an interruption or withdrawal from your course. Any loans or grants paid to you during a period when you are no longer attending your course will be re- assessed and may result in an overpayment calculation. SFE will ask for any overpayment to be repaid to them.

Overpayment of Maintenance Loan

If you interrupt and intend to return to your course, an overpayment of Maintenance Loan can be recovered from future Maintenance Loan payments due to be paid the following year. If you have left or completed your course, the method of recovery will depend on the circumstances in which the overpayment occurred. You will receive a payment schedule letter detailing the amounts to be recovered. Recovery of an overpayment is a separate process from the normal income-contingent loan repayments which will start from the April after you have graduated or left your course and if you are earning over the income threshold.

Overpayment of grants for living costs

This includes: Special Support Grant, Maintenance Grant, Parents Learning Allowance, Childcare Grant, Adult Dependents Grant.

If you are interrupting and intend to return to your course, an overpayment of grant can be recovered from your future grant payments due to be paid the following year. If you have been overpaid, you will receive a payment schedule letter detailing the amounts to be recovered. If you have withdrawn from your course, SFE may seek to recover the overpayment directly from you.

SFE can recover overpaid loans and grants in the methods described above but they can also exercise discretion as to how and when to go about this. For example, if the recovery will lead to financial hardship, you can write to SFE to negotiate how and when the overpayment is recovered. Please seek advice from the Student Advice TeamGo to the Student Advice page regarding overpayments before discussing your case with SFE.

Student Finance England has useful further information about overpayments.

Interrupting as an EU/EEA/Swiss national

The UK Government confirmed that EU students who are continuing a course that started prior to September 2021 will remain eligible for SFE financial support for the duration of their course even if the course ends after 31 December 2020. EU students must have applied for either Settled or Pre-Settled status before 30 June 2021 to continue to be eligible for student finance.

If you are an EU Migrant Worker receiving a maintenance loan and you interrupt, you must continue to meet the employment requirements to remain eligible for funding when you return to your studies.

If you plan to be outside the UK during the period you interrupt, it’s important to note that immigration rules only allow you to be absent for a maximum period of six months in any 12-month period if you plan to apply for Settled status after five years. There are exceptions. Please contact the Student Advice TeamGo to the Student Advice page to discuss your individual circumstances.

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