Have you ever wondered why Student Finance England (SFE) payments are termly? Well, so have we!

The Sabbatical officers from Chichester, Winchester and Canterbury Christ Church Students' Unions have taken it upon themselves to ask SFE to change their payments to a more 'real-world' scenario, in turn - helping students to budget more effectively. 

Monthly payments are reflective of paying rent, bills, most jobs, subscriptions and much more. It doesn't make sense to keep them as termly. Funnily enough, there is a similar Student Finance Payment layout to the one that we would like in place in various Universities in Scotland, with some Scottish Sabbatical officer also weighing in on the impact of monthly payments:

'I was not aware that students in England received their student finance payments on a termly basis and I feel strongly that a monthly payment is much wiser and more suitable for students managing their finances, often for the first time. As a Scottish student, my SAAS student loan and my SAAS bursary payments are divided on a monthly basis between September and June. The payment is made on roughly the same day around the beginning of each month and I receive a double payment at the start of the academic year which I believe is designed so that students can pay for / offset any costs of acquiring accommodation (deposits / moving costs, etc). This allows for much simpler budgeting and I cannot imagine how challenging it must be for students in England to plan months ahead especially considering how great a proportion of their loan must go to things like rent and utility bills. '

We have received a huge amount of feedback in support of this from students at our Universities, some of which being:

'This would be extremely helpful particularly for mature students with families to support. I am an older student and the prospect of waiting from April to October with no funds is daunting. I get my student finance through Wales though so this proposal should be for all of the UK not just England.'

'Yes, monthly payments to students would create a more realistic picture of a "real-world" scenario to payments coming in and to push forward healthier approaches to budgeting for students. Termly payments do not encourage this, leaving students to overspend at the start of these payments, ending in stressed, overworked students.'

So, we are asking for YOUR support. If this is something that you would be interested in getting behind, we would be extremely grateful for your signature on this petition.