The UK Government has announced £15 million to support students with the cost of living, as well as a 2.8% increase to the maintenance package for students in England for 2023/24.
Responding, Chloe Field, NUS Vice President Higher Education, said:
“The government has finally recognised that the cost-of-living crisis is leaving our student communities on the brink, and that existing support has failed to reach them. That we have got here at all is down to the hard work and relentless campaigning of the student movement over the past six months.
“We welcome this investment of £15 million into university hardship funds. It’s vital that these funds are made accessible to as many students as soon as possible. Ultimately, hardship funds are a quick fix to a long-term problem which has come to a head in the cost-of-living crisis.
"The government must go further to protect students in the long term, by increasing the value of the maintenance package, implementing a rent freeze and further controls on spiralling student rent, reducing transport costs and increasing the minimum wage for apprentices and young people.
"The 2.8% increase in the maintenance loan for 2023/24 is woefully inadequate and will leave students over £1,500 worse off than they would have been if student support was tied to inflation. More than a quarter of students are living on less than £50 a month after rent and bills. If maintenance support continues to lag behind inflation, the number of students in poverty is only going to increase."
