Supporting document checklist

Please read through this guidance carefully and provide all necessary documents when submitting your Hardship Fund application. Missing or incorrect documents will delay the assessment process.

All students when submitting a Hardship Fund application must provide the following:

1. Financial statements from the past three months for all accounts held in your name (in PDF format only). You will also need to provide a bank statement dated the day before receipt of your first maintenance loan instalment.

a) This includes but is not limited to, current, student, savings (including ISAs), investments, credit cards, and cryptocurrency accounts etc.

b) Explain all transactions of £100+c. Explain all payments received into your account (who the payment is from and the purpose of the payment) – specifically, payments received from family, friends, employment etc.

Explaining your bank account transactions

We recommend you send your bank account transactions to us on a spreadsheet

Add a new table to the spreadsheet for each bank account
Annotate all payments going into your account
Annotate any payments of £100+ paid out of your account

You do not need to annotate every transaction on your statements: only those that are either going into your account or going out of your account and more than £100.

When you are providing your bank account transactions, please follow the layout and column titles of the table provided.

It is important that you annotate your bank statements accurately so we can correct assess your hardship fund application. You can see some examples below:

HSBC Account 1234
Date	Money in	Money out	Purpose	Relationship	Annotation needed? (For reference only)
03/09/2025	£ 45.00		Support with groceries	Parent	Yes, you would need to annotate this as it is 2) a payment coming into your account
08/09/2025	£ 700.00		Transfer from savings	Me	No, you would not need to annotate this as it is a transfer between two accounts that belong to you
08/09/2025		£ 700.00	Rent	Flatmate	Yes, you would need to annotate this as it is 3) a payment going out of your account over £100
12/09/2025		£ 20.00	Shared groceries	Flatmate	No, you would not need to annotate this as it is a payment under £100 being paid out.

HSBC Account 5678
Date	Money in	Money out	Purpose	Relationship

2. Tenancy agreement/Accommodation invoice.

3. Evidence of funding received for the current academic year.

a) Full Student Finance Notification of Entitlement letter in PDF format. This should show your full entitlement and the amount you have requested.

b) NHS Bursary Award Notice/NHS Learning Support Fund Training Grant (if applicable). This should show your payments for each term.

c) Any additional grants/bursaries/scholarships/stipends etc.

If you are a…

Student not in receipt of Student Finance for religious reasons – please provide evidence of alternative financial provision. You should also still apply for a maintenance loan of £0 from Student Finance and ask to have your application means-tested. This is so that we can assess you under the correct hardship fund.
Student with dependents – please provide birth certificates for each child or a child benefit letter and evidence of your childcare costs. If you are in receipt of a Childcare Grant, please provide evidence of the invoices/payments from the Childcare Grant Gateway.
Student unable to work - if you are unable to work due to a disability or illness, please provide evidence.
Postgraduate student – please provide evidence of all funding in place e.g., loans, savings, scholarships/stipends, family contributions, income from part-time work, benefits etc. to evidence that you meet the Notional Postgraduate Income (NPI). NPI for students living in London = £261. NPI for students living with parents, students with dependents or, a disability impacting ability to work = £220.
Student receiving benefits – please provide evidence of any means-tested benefits that you are in receipt of. For Universal Credit, you should provide entitlement breakdowns for the past three months.
International students – due to the complex nature of these assessments, students will need to provide more in-depth evidence including but not limited to, bank statements for all accounts in your name since the start of the academic year, evidence of financial provision, details of your change in circumstances etc. Students will also need to state the award amount they are hoping to receive and how these funds would be used.

4. Supporting statement (max 500 words) outlining your current financial circumstances and need

Downloading a PDF bank statement

Some banks require to you to download statements from their website rather than their app. You can find instructions for the various banks on their websites: