Checking the status of your student finance application
Source: gov.uk (2025-07-18)

Track the status and progress of your student finance application using your online account to make sure your money is ready for starting your course.

Check your online account

You can use your student finance online account to check the progress of your application.

Sign in (https://www.gov.uk/student-finance-register-login)

Use this guide to understand what the different application status’ means, and what the next steps are to make sure your money is ready for starting your course.

Application started

This means you need to submit your application before we can process it.

It will take 4 weeks for us to process an application. If you submit your application late it might take us longer to process this and make your payments.

If you apply near the start of your course, you may get the minimum amount of student finance (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/understanding-student-living-costs#what-you-could-get-as-a-minimum) to begin with, so you have some money. Find out more about applying late. (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/how-to-get-your-first-payment-if-youre-applying-late)

Once you submit your application, it will update to ‘Application sent’.

Processing application

This means we’re now checking your application. It will take 4 weeks to process this.

We’ll get in touch to let you know the progress of your application and if we need anything else from you, so you do not need to contact us.

Once we complete our checks, it will update to ‘Application approved’.

Please don’t contact us during this time, so we can process your application as quickly as possible.

Reviewing evidence

This means we’re now checking your information and evidence. If you have not completed your task list, do this now.

We’ll let you know if we need anything else from you, so you do not need to contact us.

During this stage, we’ll check your National Insurance number with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) - if you’ve not given us it yet, you can do this using your online account. (https://www.gov.uk/student-finance-register-login) This process takes around 2 weeks.

If you can’t find your National Insurance number, download the HMRC app (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/download-the-hmrc-app) to access it.

Once we’ve completed all our checks, it will update to ‘Evidence accepted’.

Confirming enrolment

This means your university or college will now confirm you’ve registered and enrolled on your course.

You’ll need to get in touch with them if you have any questions about this process.

Once we get confirmation from your university or college, it will update to ‘Enrolment confirmed’.

Receive payments

This means you can now view your payment schedule.

Using your online account (https://www.gov.uk/student-finance-register-login), you can select ‘View your payments’ to see a full breakdown of how your payments are made.

Your payment dates are estimates but we’ll send you a text when your payment is on its way.

Check your bank details are correct and update them online if you need to.

Once all payments for the year are paid, it will update to ‘Payments received’.

Keep up to date with student finance

For a whole range of student finance information, visit our campaign page (https://studentfinance.campaign.gov.uk/) and follow us on:
- Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/SFEngland)
- Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/studentfinance_england/)
- X (https://X.com/SF_England)
- YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/user/SFEFILM/videos)