Understanding student living costs
Source: gov.uk (2025-02-03)

Information for students about what living cost funding is available (including student finance for 2025 to 2026 and 2024 to 2025) for those living in England.

Students studying at university or college can have different living costs depending on where and what they will be studying, their lifestyle and any financial commitments they might have.

Student Space (https://studentspace.org.uk/) offer advice and support to all, including information on where to find extra funding (https://studentspace.org.uk/wellbeing/how-to-find-extra-funding-at-university) to help with your living costs and budgeting tools. Why not check out their guidance on how to create a budget (https://studentspace.org.uk/wellbeing/how-to-make-a-student-budget) to find out what your living costs at university or college might add up to?

If you’re unsure about what additional costs may be involved as a result of your studies, you should ask your university or college for more information. Examples could include:

accommodation costs – such as rent

travel

course materials

food and drink

utilities – such as gas and electricity bills

Find out what Student Finance you could get as a minimum and maximum in the 2024 to 2025 and 2025 to 2026 academic years.

What you could get as a minimum

Student Finance England (SFE) provide a Maintenance Loan to help you with your living costs. All eligible students can get the basic non-income assessed minimum amount of Maintenance Loan to help with these costs. The minimum amount you can get is:

Most students can get a higher amount of Maintenance Loan by providing details of their household income.

What you could get as a maximum

If you apply for student finance based on your household income (https://www.gov.uk/apply-for-student-finance/household-income) then you may be entitled to even more Maintenance Loan to help with your living costs.

For example, full-time undergraduate students with a household income of £25,000 or less would get the maximum additional Maintenance Loan. Students with a household income above £25,000 would get a lower amount of loan based on their household income.

The tables show some examples of what the difference is between the maximum Maintenance Loan and the amount you could get based on your household income (https://www.gov.uk/apply-for-student-finance/household-income).

2025 to 2026 academic year

Living with your parents

Living away from your parents, outside London

2024 to 2025 academic year

Living with your parents

Living away from your parents, outside London

There are different rates for students living in London and for other circumstances such as if there are other students living in your household, you’re in your final year of your studies or if you get benefits. Use the student finance calculator (https://www.gov.uk/student-finance-calculator) to get an estimate on the amount of Maintenance Loan available to you based on your specific circumstances.

For some students even the maximum amount of Maintenance Loan may not be enough to cover all their living costs.

Making up the difference

Students are expected to make up the difference between the Maintenance Loan amount available to them and their total living costs.

Financial support may be provided by the student’s parents or partner. But there are several other sources of funding available for students who don’t have access to household support, or for students who need more funding because even the maximum Maintenance Loan available isn’t enough. These could be:

part-time employment

savings

university bursaries and scholarships

Local Authority support such as the Higher Education Bursary

You can find more information about some of the alternative sources of funding and guidance on how to budget for university our cost of living page (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/cost-of-living-student-finance-support).