Hardship Fund Application

Financial support may be available for students requiring help with:

• Housing costs — for example, mortgage payments, rent arrears or overdue utility bills.
• Specialist equipment to study — for example, laptops where they cannot access computers on campus.

The fund is open to all ICON College of Technology’s students (UK and EU) who normally study in the UK. The fund can offer a non-repayable grant to provide some support when many students’ incomes may have been affected. Please read the information below carefully, as it gives you important information and guidance about this fund. The fund exists to help any eligible student who has a particular financial need.

• Awards from this fund do not need to be repaid.
• Applications are processed in date order and once funds are exhausted, no further awards are made.
• We cannot guarantee that there will be sufficient funds to meet every application we receive, or all the costs you might apply for.

Am I eligible to apply?

• You must be an active registered current student, except Year 1 first semester, studying at ICON College of Technology and Management.
• The Hardship Fund is for students from low-income backgrounds (household income below £42,875), studying on full time accredited FE or HE courses.
• You are expected to have maintained an appropriate standard of behaviour and attendance (including online teaching provision) throughout your course of study. If you are currently facing disciplinary action, you may not be eligible for this support.
• The usual study location of your course must be in the UK.
• You must have a bank account into which a BACS payment can be made.

How will payment be made?

If you are granted an award, we will make payment directly into your bank account. This means that you must ensure that your bank account details are up-to-date.

Is there anything else I need to know?

• At certain times of the year, the office is very busy and your application may take longer than stated above. You can help by planning ahead, filling in your application form legibly and accurately and providing us with all the information we request.
• There is no absolute guarantee that you will qualify for hardship funds, as resources are limited.
• Once you have submitted an Application Form and provided all the necessary evidence then an assessment will take place. If your application is successful, you will receive the payment.

Evidence required: (When providing documents to the College by email, the most secure way is to collate all of your documents into either a PDF document or a Word document).

Please submit the following documents along with your Application form:

1. Completed Application form.
2. Provide your last three (3) months latest bank statements for all accounts, where appropriate.
3. Provide a tenancy agreement/mortgage statement, where applicable.
4. Provide your SLC (Student loan company) letter with payment date.
5. Provide your last 3 months payslips or Accountant letter with your annual tax calculation (if you are self-employed).
6. If you receive benefits from the DWP, HMRC or local council, you should include your entitlement letter, or annotate the payments on your bank statements.
7. If you have childcare responsibilities/costs, provide a current bill or receipt.

All applications will be considered. However, applications without supporting documents for your Hardship fund will be declined.

1. You must be an active registered current student, except Year 1 first semester studying at ICON College of Technology and Management.
2. The Hardship Fund is for students from low-income backgrounds (household income below £42,875), studying on full time accredited FE or HE courses.
3. You are expected to have maintained an appropriate standard of behaviour and attendance (including online teaching provision) throughout your course of study. If you are currently facing disciplinary action, you may not be eligible for this support.
4. The usual study location of your course must be in the UK.
5. You must have a bank account into which a BACS payment can be made.
6. You must have completed the application form honestly and declared any reasons you may not be eligible for the award. Fraudulent claims may lead to disciplinary action and/or the refunding to the College by the applicant of any monies awarded from the Hardship Fund.
7. If the Hardship Fund is exhausted, no further application will be processed or granted any fund beyond that point.
8. You may not be considered again if you were awarded hardship funding in an earlier distribution.
9. The decision of the ICON College Hardship Fund Panel will be final and no correspondence will be entered into with a student once a decision has been made as to the eligibility of each student’s claim.
10. All decisions regarding the award (or not) of a Hardship Fund grant will be communicated to each applicant by email.

Declaration

• I confirm that the information provided in this application is true and correct. I also confirm that I have read and understood all information provided herewith.
• I understand that if any of the supporting information/documents provided are false, or not credible, then my application may not be processed until it is verified.
• I understand that any misleading information may automatically disqualify my application and that the College may take disciplinary actions as per college procedures.
• I understand that once the Hardship Fund is exhausted, no further application will be processed or granted any fund beyond that point.
• I understand that all information and evidence provided with this application will be used for this purpose only and may be retained for audit purposes.

Data Protection and Confidentiality

All information provided in your application will be used for the purpose of assessing your entitlement for the Hardship Fund. In order to comply with the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and Data Protection Act 2018, it is implied that you have given your consent to process all the information and evidence that you have provided with your application.

The Hardship Fund is a means-tested fund administered by the College’s Hardship Fund Panel.

The information provided and evidence are dealt with by our relevant Student Support Team and the Hardship Fund Panel who are engaged in processing your application. We may need to use or contact any third party to validate or verify your information.

By signing the Declaration below, you are agreeing that the College can share the information with the relevant Student Support Team, can contact third parties to validate evidence, and that statistical information can be shared with the College and the relevant authorities.