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<p>The government believes that income contingent student loans are a fair and sensible
way of financing higher education (HE). It is only right that those who benefit from
the system should make a fair contribution to its costs. The government have continued
to increase maximum loans and grants for living and other costs for undergraduate
and postgraduate students each year, with a 2.8% increase for the 2023/24 academic
year and a further 2.5% increase announced for 2024/25.</p><p> </p><p>In addition,
the government have frozen maximum tuition fees for the 2023/24 and 2024/25 academic
years. By 2024/25, maximum fees will have been frozen for seven successive years.
The department believe that the current fee freeze achieves the best balance between
ensuring that the system remains financially sustainable, offering good value for
the taxpayer, and reducing debt levels for students in real terms.</p><p> </p><p>The
government understands the pressures people have been facing with the cost of living
and has taken action to help. The government have 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> </p><p>The
government have also made a further £10 million of support available to help student
mental health and hardship funding for the 2023/24 academic year. This funding will
complement the help universities are providing through their own bursary, scholarship
and hardship support schemes. For the 2024/25 financial year, the government have
increased the Student Premium (full-time, part-time, and disabled premium) by £5 million
to reflect high demand for hardship support. Further details of this allocation for
the academic year 2024/25 will be announced by the Office for Students in the summer.</p><p>
</p><p>Overall, support to households to help with the high cost of living is worth
£108 billion over 2022/23 to 2024/25, which is an average of £3,800 per UK household.
The government believes this will have eased the pressure on family budgets, which
will in turn enable many families to provide additional support to their children
in HE to help them meet increased living costs.</p>
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