Guidance for students, parents and partners providing evidence to support a student finance application
If you apply to Student Finance England for help with your studies for a full-time undergraduate course, you, your parents or partner may be asked to give us evidence.
Applies to England
This guide covers the evidence that students need to provide to prove their identity, as well as evidence that students, parents and partners can give us to prove their household income and marital status.
Check out our step-by-step guide on how to upload evidence to your online account!
It’s quick and easy to use your Student Finance account, watch our other ‘How to’ films for step-by-step tutorials.
If you need to provide evidence of your identity
When you apply for the first time, you’ll need to provide details or evidence to confirm your identity. Most identity evidence can’t be a digital copy and must be valid on the date we receive it.
When we need to see your original identity evidence, this must be sent by post.
I’m a UK national, what can I send?
If you have a valid UK passport, you can give us these details when you apply. If you don’t have a valid UK passport, you can:
- upload a copy of your UK birth or adoption certificate (both long and short versions are acceptable) to your online account
- send us a photocopy of your UK birth or adoption certificate (both long and short versions are acceptable)
- send us your original certificate of Naturalisation/Registration
I’m an EU/EEA national, what can I send?
If you’ve been granted a status under the EU Settlement Scheme you need to provide us with a share code to prove your immigration and identity status. You don’t need to send us a passport.
If you’ve not been granted a status under the EU Settlement Scheme then you should send us one of the following:
- original EU/EEA passport
- original National ID card
- original ROI passport card
I’m from outside of the UK, EU and EAA, what can I send?
You can send us an:
- original non-UK passport
- original Home Office Biometric Residence Card
- original UK travel document
- original certificate of Naturalisation/Registration
Examples of evidence we can’t accept:
- paper ID cards (this includes Italian paper ID cards)
- UK or non-UK driving licence
Find out what address you need to send your identity evidence to by visiting www.gov.uk/apply-for-student-finance/proof-of-identity
If your parents or partner are asked to provide evidence of their income
We usually don’t ask your parents or partner to provide evidence of their income once they’ve supported your application, we’ll get their details from HRMC. We may contact them to ask for evidence of their:
- marital status – if they’re separated or divorced
- income – if they’re living abroad or finalising their current year income assessment
- private pension contributions
- additional voluntary contributions.
You should only upload financial evidence if we’ve asked for it. Uploading evidence such as your P60 or Tax Return when this wasn’t needed will cause delays to the student finance application.
If you’re asked for evidence, we accept digital copies as long as they’re clear and readable. The quickest and easiest way to provide financial evidence is by uploading it via your parent’s or partner’s online account.
If you or your parents need to provide evidence of marital status
When you first apply for student finance, we may need to confirm your or your parent’s marital status; to do this we need you to give us evidence.
If you or your parent indicate that you’re single, usually we won’t ask you to provide evidence. Digital copies of evidence are acceptable as long as they’re clear and readable.
If you or your parents tell us the wrong martial status, we may need evidence before we can update your status.
Evidence to prove that you’ll be under the age of 25 years old at the start of the academic year and married or in a civil partnership
Examples of evidence you can provide to confirm your marital status include:
- marriage certificate
- civil partnership documentation
Evidence to prove that you or your parents are separated, divorced, or have a dissolved civil partnership
Examples of evidence you or your parent can provide to confirm marital status include:
- decree nisi or decree absolute
- final or conditional order
- civil partnership conditional order
- a signed and dated letter from your solicitor confirming your status
- a signed affidavit
- statutory declaration
- most recent Council Tax bill with an acceptable discount
If your or your parent’s marital status remains the same throughout your studies, we’ll only need this evidence in the first academic year of your course.
The quickest and easiest way to provide marital status evidence is by uploading it via your or your parent’s or partner’s online account.
Alternatively, this evidence can be posted to us.
Find out what address to send your evidence to by visiting www.gov.uk/apply-for-student-finance
How long it takes to process your evidence
Check out our current timescales page to find out when to expect an update on your application or on information you’ve sent!
If you’ve uploaded evidence through your online account, you can use the application status tracker to find out when to expect an update.
If you’ve sent evidence by post, this can take up to 6 weeks for us to process and update your online account.
To make sure we can process your evidence as quickly as possible, please do not contact us during this time. We’ll update your online account once it has been processed.
We can’t confirm that we’ve got your identity evidence until after we’ve processed it. This allows for quicker processing times and makes sure you get your identity evidence back as quickly as possible.
If you’ve sent your evidence by tracked delivery, you should check the delivery date with the delivery service.
Last updated 6 November 2023 + show all updates
-
Added information under 'If your parents or partner are asked to provide evidence of their income' section to cover new process and evidence we may ask for.
-
Add link to current timescales page
-
Added information on 'how long it takes to process your evidence'
-
Update to acceptable identity evidence.
-
Updating guidance for parents and partners evidence and martial status evidence which now includes final or conditional order.
-
First published.