Important Information:
We are deeply concerned by the recent announcement from the Department for Education (DfE), regarding student loans, and the impact this is having on our students.
We are fully committed to supporting our students and in addition to our own student support services, we have developed our FAQs to guide our students to additional sources of support and information. Our FAQs also offer students direct access to the support services offered by our partner universities.
Our FAQs are reviewed and updated on a regular basis and we advise all our students to regularly refer to these.
We share all feedback received from our students, directly with the relevant university partner. Students wishing to submit a formal complaint to the university partner are advised to follow the instructions in the FAQ ‘How can I complain about this?’
Further to an important national development affecting student funding for programmes delivered at the weekend, we have developed the following FAQs.
We will update these regularly, so we encourage students to check this webpage for updates.
Please do not contact multiple colleagues at LD Training, please use the direct email contact for all enquiries: studentservices@ldtraining.ac.uk
Page last updated 12 May 2026
If your programme is delivered either mostly, or entirely, at the weekend, it is considered by the Department for Education (DfE) and the Student Loans Company (SLC), to be a distance-learning programme.
The DfE has advised that our university partners have incorrectly registered your programme with the SLC, and that previously, your programme had not been identified as a distance-learning programme.
This error in registering your programme with the SLC has only recently been identified, and the DfE is working together with the SLC, to correct the error.
Your programme has now been identified as a distance-learning programme, and under SLC rules, students registered on a distance-learning programme do not qualify for a maintenance loan.
Further to recent announcements from the DfE regarding student maintenance loans, students are no longer being required to repay their maintenance loans with immediate effect. The SLC has confirmed that all maintenance loan overpayments will now be collected from students using the standard loans repayment process.
‘Huge relief’ as students given loans ‘in error’ get repayment reprieve – BBC News
The SLC will need to reassess all students who are registered on a distance-learning programme.
The SLC will need to identify those students who have been attending programmes delivered at the weekend, and those students who have been regularly attending programmes delivered during the week (Monday to Friday).
Those students attending a programme delivered at the weekend, will not qualify for student maintenance funding, and may not qualify for student grants for childcare, either.
Those students who have been regularly attending programmes delivered during the week (Monday to Friday) may qualify for a student maintenance loan and may qualify for a childcare grant, subject to eligibility.
Because your programme has been incorrectly registered with the SLC, you were not identified as a distance-learning student, and you incorrectly qualified for maintenance loan funding.
In March 2026, the SLC asked students to repay all the incorrect maintenance payments they had received, with immediate effect.
However, in April 2026, the SLC then informed students that the SLC would collect the incorrect maintenance loan payments, using the standard process for student loan repayments, which is normally implemented after a student has finished their programme.
If you started your programme attending at the weekend, and you have either transferred to weekday attendance, or intend to transfer to weekday attendance, you will be asked to repay your maintenance loan, for the duration of the time you were registered as attending your programme at the weekend.
Repayment of your maintenance loan will be subject to the standard process and the terms and conditions stated in your loan contract with the SLC. You will not be asked to repay your maintenance loan immediately.
If you have switched between weekend attendance and weekday attendance (or vice versa), throughout the duration of your programme, you will be required to repay the maintenance loan funding you received, for the periods of time when you were registered for weekend attendance.
Because your programme has been incorrectly registered with the SLC, you were not identified as a distance-learning student, and you incorrectly qualified for maintenance loan funding.
If you are a final-year student and teaching has finished, you will still be required to repay your maintenance loan. However, your will be asked to repay your maintenance loan according to the standard process identified in your loan agreement with the SLC.
On 20 April 2026, the government made an urgent announcement by way of a press release to the BBC.
The information about repaying your student loan has now changed.
- Maintenance Loans:
You will still be required to repay your student maintenance loans, subject to the original repayment terms, identified at the time you applied for the loans.
Any maintenance payments previously identified as ‘overpayments’ will now be treated as part of your standard student loan balance, and you will not be required to repay them immediately.
- Childcare Grants:
The situation for repaying childcare grants is currently under review, and has been temporarily paused, subject to further information in the autumn 2026.
Your preferred study days, together with the preferred study days of the other students in your cohort, will be discussed with our university partner and we will work together with our university partners to reschedule the delivery of teaching to meet the new programme requirements.
We will work with our university partners to facilitate your preferences for either weekend attendance, or weekday attendance, although we cannot guarantee teaching delivery on your preferred days. We will work with our university partners, and consider your preference, and those preferences of the other students in your cohort.
We will confirm your new timetable, according to your weekend or weekday attendance preferences, as soon as we have confirmed this with our university partners.
Our university partners will need to re-register all weekend programmes as distance learning programmes.
Also, our university partners will need to work with you to complete a ‘Change of Circumstances’ form (CoC), to register you for either weekend attendance, or weekday attendance, with the SLC.
If you opt to continue attending a weekend programme, you will not qualify for a maintenance loan to continue your studies, and you will need to repay all the maintenance loan funding you have previously received, since you first started your programme.
If you opt to transfer to a weekday programme, you may qualify for a maintenance loan to continue your studies (subject to eligibility), but you will still need to repay all the maintenance loan funding you have previously received, since you first started your programme.
In both cases, your maintenance loan repayments will be subject to the original terms of repayment, which you signed at the time you applied for your loan.
Once you receive confirmation of your days of attendance, our partner university will inform the SLC. The SLC will then reassess your eligibility for a maintenance loan, and additional support. Additional support might include funding for childcare and allowances for dependants.
After our university partner has submitted your Change of Circumstances (CoC) form to the SLC, the SLC will write to you to update you in relation to your SLC account. It can take up to 30 working days for the SLC to contact you.
In the meantime, you must attend all your new timetabled teaching and learning sessions, as per your preferred option, and as you have agreed with your relevant university.
This means that your Change of Circumstances (CoC) form has now been received by the SLC, and that the SLC has now started to process your request to transfer to a weekday programme. This is a 2-stage process: (i) the SLC will register you for your new weekday programme, and (ii) the SLC will withdraw you from your previous weekend programme.
If your SLC account shows an increase in the standard tuition fee payable for your programme, this means stage (i) has been completed, but stage (ii) has not yet been completed.
Once the SLC completes stage (ii), your online SLC account should show the newly assessed tuition fee for your programme.
The SLC has also advised all universities to review and make available their ‘student hardship funds’, where appropriate. LD Training is working with university partners to ensure that students receive further information about university hardship funds.
Please contact the university, relevant to your programme:
- Leeds Trinity University (LTU): SLCWeekend@leedstrinity.ac.uk
- University of Suffolk (UoS): info@uos.ac.uk
You may be able to apply for Financial Hardship from the SLC, but you can only do this after your new entitlement has been assessed. Further information about Financial Hardship can be found on the SLC website.
Please find here a link to the SLC Hardship Funding form: https://media.slc.co.uk/sfe/2223/ft/sfe_financial_hardship_confirmation_form_2223_o.pdf
The Department for Education (DfE) has advised that our university partners have incorrectly registered your programme with the SLC, and it had not been identified as a distance-learning programme.
This situation is not unique to LD Training and our university partners. This situation concerns many academic partnerships in England, and impacts on many students studying in these partnerships.
Step 1: The university partner and LD Training will confirm what alternative teaching options are available (attend weekday teaching or remain on weekend teaching).
Step 2: You will be asked which teaching option you would like to attend, and your preference will be considered in relation to the preferences of other students in your cohort.
Step 3: The university partner and LD Training will confirm which teaching option you will be registered for. We will do our best to facilitate your preferences, and those of other students in your cohort.
Step 4: The university partner will complete the SLC requirements to change your programme information on the SLC database, and to register you for your preferred teaching option.
Step 5: You will start attending your programme, according to your preferred teaching option.
Step 6: The SLC will reassess your eligibility for maintenance loan funding and childcare grant funding.
You can contact the Student Loans Company (SLC) on 0300 100 0607 or see Contact Student Finance England – GOV.UK.
Our university partners will be able to offer you further information and guidance, including further information regarding their hardship funds. Please contact the university relevant to your programme:
- Leeds Trinity University (LTU): SLCWeekend@leedstrinity.ac.uk
- University of Suffolk (UoS): info@uos.ac.uk
If you would like to review your student contract with the relevant partner university, please reference the links below:
- Leeds Trinity University:
- University of Suffolk:
- Contact the Student Centre: studentlife@uos.ac.uk
- General Regulations for Students: http://www.uos.ac.uk/media/uniofsuffolk/website/content-assets/documents/policies-and-procedures/General-Regulations-2025-26.pdf
You will need to follow the recommended complaints process, relevant to your partner university:
University of Suffolk (UoS):
- Information:
www.uos.ac.uk/media/uniofsuffolk/website/content-assets/documents/policies-and-procedures/Student-Complaints-Procedure.pdf - Complaints Form:
www.uosunion.org/pageassets/advice/academic/Student-Complaints-Formal-Stage-Form-PDF.pdf
Leeds Trinity University (LTU):
Please contact studentservices@ldtraining.ac.uk as your first point of contact for:
- Funding concerns
- Academic questions
- Timetable or delivery changes
- Wellbeing and personal support
At this stage, it is best to wait for further guidance before contacting the Student Loans Company directly.
Your GP is always a good starting point, and further advice and support is available at
- Togetherall: https://account.v2.togetherall.com/join/ck8ed14zit1nc0760io5aknzn
- Samaritans: 116 123 I https://www.samaritans.org/
- Mind: 0300 102 1234 I https://www.mind.org.uk/
- Shout (text only): 85258 I https://giveusashout.org/
- CALM (open 5PM–midnight every day): 0800 58 58 58 I https://www.thecalmzone.net/
- Student Minds: https://www.studentminds.org.uk/
If you feel that you need urgent or emergency help now then further information is available here.
If you are struggling financially, please feel free to contact these other external organisations, for further advice and support.
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