Greg Mulholland – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2014-06-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will consider changing student loan payments from three termly instalments to monthly instalments; and what steps his Department has taken to help students learn to budget.

Mr David Willetts

The Government is not currently intending to change student loan payments from three termly instalments to monthly instalments. Payments of living costs support for full-time students in higher education at the start of each term give students the flexibility to meet up-front costs such as accommodation costs.

Advice on effective budgeting is available through the BIS Student Finance Tour where recent graduates share their personal experience with prospective students on how to manage their living costs spending while at university. Around 120,000 prospective students attended the Tour in 2013, and the aim is to increase this number to 140,000 in 2014. Budgeting advice is also available through university student support services including the Money Doctors Initiative. Additional resources are available through the National Union of Students and the National Association of Student Money Advisers.