Student Finance England - Appeals procedure
Our appeals procedure was updated on 31 March 2023. Any new appeals received from 1 April 2023 will follow our new process. Customers should read the guidance on this page to find out how to make an appeal in relation to their student finance.
Applies to England
Making an appeal
An appeal is a formal request by you to Student Finance England to review the decisions made about what and how much student finance you’re entitled to. We assess student finance applications in line with the student support regulations that define who can get student finance and how much they can get.
But sometimes, you may think we’ve not applied these regulations correctly when we’ve assessed your student finance application. If this is the case, you can appeal the decisions we’ve made.
SLC can also accept appeals from third parties if you’ve given them permission to make an appeal on your behalf. The third party should be aware that we’ll not provide them with information we hold about you unless we know that you’ve given your consent. This can be done via SLC’s consent to share process. The third party will need to provide the security information used to set up consent to share each time they contact us on your behalf.
If you’re unhappy with a decision we’ve made about your student finance and don’t think we’ve kept to the regulations, you should make an appeal as soon as possible.
For example, if we initially gave you student finance that you weren’t entitled to because we didn’t take your previous study into account. We’ll only review these cases in exceptional circumstances. Find out what situations this covers and the type of evidence you’ll need to send on our dedicated page.
If an appeal is made to us more than 12 months after the decision, we will only consider it if:
- we believe there were good reasons for not making the appeal within the 12 months
- it is still possible to properly consider the appeal
If we don’t accept your appeal, we’ll write to you to explain why.
What is not an appeal
You should not make an appeal if you’re unhappy about:
- an administrative mistake
- receiving an impolite or unprofessional service
- how long it’s taken us to respond to you
- being given incorrect information
In these cases, you should follow our complaints process rather than make an appeal.
Information to include in your appeal
To help us deal with your appeal, please give us as much information as possible.
If you’re sending an appeal by email, please make sure you send it from the same email account you have linked with your student finance account. You can check this by signing in and selecting ‘Your personal details’.
You should include:
- your Customer Reference Number (CRN)
- your date of birth
- your full name and address (this should be the same as the one on your online account)
- the password (if you’re a third party with consent to share)
- the decision you disagree with
- why you think our decision is wrong
- any evidence that supports your case
How to make an appeal
You can make an appeal by email or post.
By email
You can download and complete the . Then, attach it to an email and send it to [email protected].
Or if you prefer, you can just send us an email explaining your appeal without using an appeals form.
Make sure to include your CRN in the email subject.
By post
You can print and complete the . Then, post it to us at:
Formal Appeals
Memphis Building
Lingfield Point
P.O. Box 226
Darlington DL1 9GA
Or if you prefer, you can just write us a letter explaining you appeal. Make sure to include all the information we need.
What happens once you’ve sent us your appeal
We’ll be in touch to acknowledge your appeal within 5 working days of receiving it. We’ll assign your appeal to one of our case handlers to investigate.
The case handler may need to contact you for more information.
You can expect a detailed response explaining our decision within 20 working days of receiving your appeal.
We’ll try our best to complete all appeals within these timescales. Sometimes an appeal can be very complex, and we may need more information from you. You may have to wait until we have everything we need before we can respond fully to you with our decision. If this is the case, we’ll keep you informed of the progress of your appeal, explain the reasons for any delays and tell you any new deadlines.
What to do if you’re still not satisfied with our decision
If you’re not satisfied with our response to your appeal, you can ask for it to be reviewed by an Independent Assessor by replying to the email we sent to you.
Independent Assessors (IAs) are appointed by Ministers and are not employed by SLC. The IAs conduct an ‘impartial review’ of your appeal but have no legal powers to overturn correctly made decisions. The IAs may make recommendations which SLC will take on board unless instructed not to do so by Ministers. The independent review concludes the appeals process.
If you’re still not satisfied following the independent review, you may wish to seek legal advice on what options are available to you. Alternatively, you may wish to refer your concerns to the relevant Ombudsman.
England: www.ombudsman.org.uk/
Updates to this page
Published 31 March 2023Last updated 18 January 2024 + show all updates
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Added information for students who were awarded funding they weren't entitled to due to previous study. Link added to new guidance page for more information.
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The Student Finance England appeals form has been added to the page
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First published.