From 1 August 2017, new students in England studying nursing, midwifery and AHP pre-registration courses (which lead on to registration with one of the health professional regulators) will have access to the standard student support package of tuition fee loans and support for living costs, rather than getting an NHS grant.
The Government is currently consulting on implementation of the changes.
It’s important to know that you don’t have to pay money upfront: tuition and living cost loans work like a tax on earnings above a certain amount and aren’t like a commercial loan or a payday loan:
Under the new student support system, students are eligible for a range of means tested loans to support for longer than average student year. There are also special allowances for childcare, adult dependents and parents’ allowance, these are bursaries and do not need to be repaid. Living support is significantly higher under the new loans system, for the maximum claim under the current figures:
Under the new system, the childcare allowance, which is a grant not a loan, is more generous than the old NHS bursary rules:
It’s not usually possible for students who already have loans from a first degree to access student loans for a second degree at the same or lower qualification level (something called the Equivalent or Lower Qualification (ELQ) rule). However, the Government is making these courses exempt to the ELQ rule, meaning that you can access a second set of loans. That might sound daunting but the 9% repayment over the earnings threshold applies even if you’ve got more than one set of loans. So if you take out loans for two degrees you will still pay back 9% not 18%. The rule about the remainder of the loan being written off after 30 years applies from the first loan you take out.
As with other students, if you graduate and earn above a certain amount of money (currently above £21k) you start repaying the loan. You repay 9% of the amount you earn over the £21k and this is usually taken out of your pay packet each month.
There are a lot of myths about whether this is affordable for new graduates. The thresholds and amounts can be altered by the Government but as an indication, at the moment on a Band 5 salary in the NHS of £21.7k (the usual starting salary for new nurses or allied health professionals) you would repay £63 per year, or £5.25 per month – 9% of £700. Any unpaid loan is written off after 30 years from the date you become eligible to repay it.
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