Financial Support Request

Bursary Fund for Students Aged 16-19

The 16-19 Bursary Fund provides financial support to help young people who face the greatest financial barriers to continue in education or training. They must be aged over 16 but under 19 on 31st August 2025 to be eligible for the 2025 – 2026 academic year.

How to apply

Once you have enrolled onto a programme, you should apply as soon as possible by completing the Bursary Fund 2025/26 online application form. Your application will be assessed, and we will write to you to let you know whether you will receive support.

All information submitted will be treated with confidentiality.

We cannot process your application unless it is fully completed, signed and evidence has been provided with it

Eligibility criteria

• Aged at least 16 and under 19 on 31 August 2025
• Learners aged 19+ with an Education Health and Care Plan
• Learners aged 19+ continuing a course which began before they turned 19

You must also meet the financial condition that your net household income is below £37,500

The total amount that you and your parents/carers can earn each year is £37,500. If more is earned, you will not be able to apply for help through the Bursary Fund.

If you are aged 16-19 and live away from your parents/carers, only your income will be counted.

Types of Financial Support

• Travel
• Essential uniform and equipment
• Subsidised meals. Eligibility for this part of the fund depends on the type of benefits you/your parent/carer receives (if any).

Financial help with childcare is supported through the government ‘care to learn’ scheme. For more information, visit www.gov.uk/care-to-learn/overview

16-19 Vulnerable Bursary

We also have a bursary for 16–19-year-olds of up to £1,200 a year for learners in the following defined vulnerable groups:

• In care
• Care leavers
• Learner in receipt of Income Support (IS), or Universal Credit (UC) in their own right
• Learner in receipt of Disability Living Allowance (DLA) or Personal Independence Payments (PIP) who also receive Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) or UC in their own right

Payments

If you are successful in your application, you will be supplied with a travel pass wherever possible. If payments are made in place of a travel pass, receipts will be requested e.g. travel receipts, and reimbursement will be made direct to the learner’s own bank account. You may need to open a bank account if you do not already have one.

Application evidence requirements

Proof of household income – this could include:

• Three (most recent) Universal Credit Award Statements showing take-home pay and deductions.
• Three months wage slips (for everyone in the household) with a statement stating no other earnings or benefits are received in to the household.
• Recent Tax Return for self-employed earnings with a statement stating no other earnings or benefits are received in to the household.

Vulnerable bursary evidence

• For learners who are in care or a care leaver, written confirmation of their current or previous looked-after status from the relevant local authority – this is the local authority that looks after them or provides their leaving care services. The evidence could be a letter or an email but must clearly be from the local authority
• For learners in receipt of UC or IS, a copy of their UC or IS award notice. This must clearly state that the claim is in the learner’s name and confirm they are entitled to the benefits in their own right. The evidence must not state any conditions that prevent them from participating in further education or training. For learners in receipt of UC, we must also see a document such as a tenancy agreement in the learner’s name, a child benefit receipt, children’s birth certificates, utility bills and so on
• For learners receiving UC/ESA and DLA and PIP, a copy of their UC claims from DWP. Evidence of receipt of DLA or PIP must also be provided

Free Meals – evidence

• Income Support
• income-based Jobseekers Allowance
• income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)
• support under part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
• the guaranteed element of State Pension Credit
• Child Tax Credit (provided they are not entitled to Working Tax Credit and have an annual gross income of no more than £16,190, as assessed by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC))
• Working Tax Credit run-on – paid for 4 weeks after someone stops qualifying for Working Tax Credit
• UC with net earnings not exceeding the equivalent of £7,400 for each year (after tax and not including any benefits they get)

Working Tax Credit is not a qualifying benefit for free meal

Please ensure that you send over all your evidence with your application form before you require any financial support as back dated payments cannot be made.

Receipt of bursary funding does not affect receipt of other means-tested benefits paid to families, such as IS, Jobseeker’s Allowance, Child Benefit, Working Tax Credit, Housing Benefit or UC.

IMPORTANT

Giving false or incomplete information that leads to incorrect/overpayment may result in future payments being stopped and any incorrectly paid funds being recovered. This might result in a referral to the police with the possibility of the learner and/or their family facing prosecution.

PROTECTION OF PUBLIC FUNDS

We must protect the public funds we handle and so we may use the information you have provided on your application to prevent and detect fraud. We may also share this information, for the same purposes, with other organisations that handle public funds, and with this in mind, a sample of applications will be chosen at random for full investigation.

DATA PROTECTION

The data you provide will be used to assess and facilitate your entitlement to help from the 16-19 Bursary Fund. In fulfilling its data protection obligations, we will treat all personal data, held manually and on a computerised database with due care, and will only disclose data in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998.