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<p>The maximum maintenance loan for an undergraduate student living away from parents
outside London in the 2023/24 academic year is £9,978. The equivalent maximum maintenance
loan was £8,430 in the 2017/18 academic year. This is a 13.9% reduction in the real-terms
value of the maximum loan. This figure has been derived by using the Retail Price
Index (RPIX) measure of inflation, applied at Quarter 1 in each academic year throughout
this time period, as published by the Office for Budget Responsibility in November
2023, which can be found here: <a href="https://obr.uk/efo/economic-and-fiscal-outlook-november-2023/"
target="_blank">https://obr.uk/efo/economic-and-fiscal-outlook-november-2023/</a>.</p><p>The
government has continued to increase maximum loans and grants for living and other
costs each year. Maximum support has been increased by 2.8% for the 2023/24 academic
year with a further 2.5% increase announced for 2024/25.</p><p>The government recognises
the additional cost of living pressures that have arisen this year and that are impacting
students. The department has already made £276 million of student premium and mental
health funding available for the 2023/24 academic year to support successful outcomes
for students including disadvantaged students.</p><p>The department is now making
a further £10 million of one off support available to support student mental health
and hardship funding. This funding will complement the help universities are providing
through their own bursary, scholarship and hardship support schemes.</p><p>Over the
period between 2022/23 to 2024/25, the government will have provided support worth
£104 billion to help families throughout the UK with the cost of living including
to meet increased household energy costs. This is an average of £3,700 per household.
This will have eased some of the pressure on family budgets and so will in turn enable
many families to provide additional support to their children in higher education
to help them meet increased living costs.</p><p>The department has also frozen maximum
tuition fees for the 2023/24 and 2024/25 academic years to deliver better value for
students and to keep the cost of higher education under control. By 2024/25, maximum
fees will have been frozen for seven years.</p>
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