Student finances (FOI)

Request

The number of university students affected by the slow completion of 2019 tax assessments by the tax department for the 2019/2020 academic year.

In order for Student Finance to calculate how much they are able to contribute to a student's university tuition fees and maintenance payments, the tax assessment for the previous year needs to be completed by the tax department on the student's parents / guardian and given to Student Finance.

Many tax assessments are still outstanding, therefore I would like to know the number of students who have been affected by this. Please provide the total number of students, and if possible the percentage of students affected out of all students that have applied to Student Finance to for funding towards university.

You probably need a date since this number will be constantly changing, therefore the number of students as at 31 December 2019.

Response

There were 75 outstanding income statements for student finance as of January 2020. However, this could be for a number of reasons including delays in tax notice assessments. Other reasons include outstanding company accounts, partnership accounts, investment income statements or information from separated families. The reason for the outstanding income statement is not recorded as it not necessary to hold this information for the purposes of student finance. Individuals have until 31 March 2020 to provide the information. The total number of students that are registered as complete for student finance for the academic year 2019/2020 was 1,419 as of February 2020.