YUSU

Money & Finance: Hardship loans

Created: 10/12/2009. Updated: 18/06/2010.

Hardship loans:

Temporary financial hardship may be alleviated by applying to the union for a hardship loan. This is provided by the union, and is fairly simple to obtain as long as you can provide proof of financial hardship (a bank statement printed off from the atm is sufficient), a debit card and cheque book as well as evidence of how the money will be repaid. The union has limited funds for this, so hardship loans are limited to £100 for 4 weeks – any more substantial (and long term) arrangements can be made with the university. If you don’t have one of the four things mentioned above (bank statement etc) it’s still worth popping in to the union and we’ll see if we can be more flexible.

Access 2 learning Fund:

The University has a fund specifically set aside for helping student who get into financial difficulties. This should not be seen as a general safety net, as it has finite resources and applications for finance may be rejected. However it is always worth going through the fund for support if times get difficult. If you are looking into applying to the fund its worth checking out the university page which covers it at this address

University emergency loans

In some situations you will need more than the £100 the Union can give out (say your loan doesn't come through for instance). In this case you may be eligible for the larger and more flexible University fund so check out the link for more information.

Right to choose fund:

The right to choose fund was established in the students union in order to allow student to be able to choose whether or not to have an abortion. Hence it can either be used to fund an abortion which the NHS will not provide (although it is rare for the NHS to refuse a student an abortion) or to cover some of the unexpected costs iof pregnancy and early childcare. Of course there is substantial funding for student parents aside from this (which we’ll direct you to)but there a number of costs (maternity clothing, baby clothes etc etc) which this may not cover and the right to choose fund tops it up. The fund also can be used to make up the difference between the cost of childcare and the amount of funding provided by the SLC.