If you've got money worries, we may be able to help.
Help with living costs
Are you experiencing financial difficulties and worried about money? We may be able to offer:
short-term, interest-free emergency assistance
an assessment to receive extra money
Financial assistance is available to support UK, EU and international undergraduate and postgraduate students.
What do we mean by financial difficulty?
If you find yourself struggling to make ends meet and you're unable to cover essential, day-to-day living costs.
Before you apply for University funding you must have accessed all other sources of funding available to you. This includes using savings and taking out an interest free overdraft if you're eligible. While we aim to help as many students as possible, this funding is discretionary so there is no guarantee that an application will be successful or that you will receive funding at the level requested.
If you're eligible to receive help, you may receive either a non-repayable award or a loan depending upon your circumstances.
Check out our myth buster to find out more about the funding, application process and the support available.
Still not sure whether to make an application?
You may feel that there are more deserving cases than yours, and you may be reluctant to submit an application. However, our funds are intended to assist as many students as possible. Our assessment process will determine the level of assistance we're able to offer you. Last year 78% of applications that were assessed were allocated funding.
We aim to let you know the outcome of your application within 10 working days where you have submitted a fully completed application form and have provided all relevant supporting documentation. If we are unable to meet this 10 working day turnaround time we will contact you to let you know and provide you with short-term interim funding if you need this.
You will need to complete a Student Financial Support Fund application Microsoft Forms and upload a completed 2022-23 Income and Expenditure table (word:110KB) as part of your application.
If you require a hard copy application form posting or emailing to you please email student.fin-supp@ncl.ac.uk or telephone 0191 208 5679 or 0191 208 3760.
The Financial Assistance Fund (FAF) is provided by the University to give discretionary financial assistance to registered international and EU students who are experiencing serious and unexpected financial difficulties due to circumstances beyond their control.
You'll need to complete a Financial Assistance Fund application Microsoft Forms and upload a completed 2022-23 Income and Expenditure table (word:110KB) as part of your application.
If you require a hard copy application form posting or emailing to you please contact us by emailing student.fin-supp@ncl.ac.uk or telephone 0191 208 5679 or 0191 208 3760.
Emergency loans
If you run out money and can't cover your living costs, we may be able to provide a short-term, interest free, emergency loan.
We'll usually only provide one emergency loan in any academic year, and we don't usually offer them during the summer vacation. Emergency loans can't assist with ongoing or long-term financial difficulties, but we have other funding that might be able to help with this.
Our application forms asks you some questions to assess your eligibility for an emergency loan and to find out more about your situation.
If you're eligible, you'll be asked to provide bank statements showing transactions in all of your bank accounts for the last month. This includes accounts you're no longer using or any overseas accounts (if applicable).
Assessors can usually reach a decision about the outcome of your emergency loan on the same day (Mon-Fri) but in some instances it could take up to 24 hours to reach a decision if you're asked to submit further evidence.
We'll email you with the outcome of your emergency loan application and you'll be asked to sign, date and return this declaration to indicate that you understand the terms and conditions of the loan. Once you have returned your declaration we'll arrange the payment of your loan (usually by BACS transfer).
We'll only offer an emergency loan to assist with your living costs in the short term. If you need longer term assistance you'll need to apply to the Student Financial Support Fund or Financial Assistance Fund.
In most instances we will provide short-term assistance by issuing a Tesco Spend Card or Tesco evoucher to help you purchase essentials such a food and toiletries. We can provide alternative support in some circumstances by issuing a pre-paid Yordex card and / or making a BACS transfer to your nominated bank account. BACS payments are not immediate and it can take a few days for the payment to reach your bank account.
We'll agree a repayment date with you when we're assessing your emergency loan application. We'll take into account when you expect to receive your next source of income. You'll only repay what you borrow from us; your loan won't accrue interest.
You can repay online via the University's Webstore.
If you're unable to repay by the agreed date contact us straight away to discuss the options available to you. We're here to support you and will always try to be flexible.
If you're a registered student and don't have access to the IT equipment needed to engage with your course you could be eligible for support through the Student IT Hardship Fund. This funding is administered on a discretionary basis – it is not an automatic entitlement and you should not regard this as guaranteed income.
Who can apply?
The scheme can support undergraduate, postgraduate taught and postgraduate research students. Home and overseas students can apply. Priority will be given to postgraduate research students.
Eligibility Criteria
You can apply for the Student IT Hardship Fund if you’re a registered student who does not have access to a suitable device and / or internet connection where you are experiencing financial difficulties and cannot access support through other IT provision provided by the University.
registered full-time or part-time. Part-time students must be studying the equivalent of at least 50% of a full-time course;
able to evidence that you are experiencing financial difficulties;
unable to access support through other IT provision provided by the University
Applications will be assessed on a case-by-case basis and decisions will be based on the information and evidence you provide. There is no appeals process.
What support is available through the Student IT Hardship Fund?
Eligible students can apply for:
£200 grant to assist with internet connectivity / or equipment
£500 grant to assist with the purchase of a laptop
Grants are non-repayable.
You will not be eligible to receive a laptop / laptop grant of £500 if you have previously been loaned a laptop from the Student IT Scheme and you have been offered a rest of studies extension. You will usually only be able to apply once for a laptop grant.
Please retain any receipts / invoices of your purchases. We may ask for copies for audit purposes.
Do not complete this application form if your request is about software. For advice on the software provision that is available to you as a student, visit this page.
How to apply
You will need to complete this online application form. Contact us if you require a hard copy of this form to complete.
You will be asked to provide additional documentation to support your application.
Please only apply if you really need help.
How are payments made?
Payments will be made by BACS credit transfer and will only be made to a bank account held by you. Please submit your bank details via S3P using the following link:
If you do not hold a UK bank account it will not be possible to upload your international bank account details to S3P. Please contact the team immediately to advise if this is the case so we can make other arrangements.
Contact
If you have any enquiries about this funding contact: student.fin-supp@ncl.ac.uk or telephoning 0191 208 5679 or 0191 208 3760.
If you are experiencing financial difficulties and are struggling to cover your living costs you may be eligible to for financial support from the Student Financial Support Fund (UK students) or the Financial Assistance Fund (EU and International students).
Need help with debts, benefits or consumer matters?
We don't provide advice about benefit eligibility, debt management or consumer matters. If you need help with any of these issues, contact the Student Advice Centre at the Students' Union, or an external organisation.
