Student Bursaries Your Guide to NHS Student Bursaries May 20131
Contents Welcome Page 3 Who are NHS Student Bursaries? Page 3 Eligibility Page 4 Scheme Rules Page 5 Bursary Elements Page 6 Making a Bursary Application Page 8 Your Bursary Online Support System (BOSS) account Page 14 How to deal with any changes during your course Page 16 Contacting Us Page 18 Useful External Contacts Page 19 This booklet is applicable to students on medical and dental courses too. However, some of the guidance is different for these students so please look out for Medical/ Dental explanations of where the guidance differs. Welcome to the NHS Student Bursaries guidance booklet for new students. Here you will find all the information you need to apply for your NHS student bursary. Before you go any further, please check whether you meet the residency criteria and are eligible to apply for an NHS student bursary by using our Eligibility calculator which can be found on our website at: http://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/ Students/3941.aspx. Please don t forget that if you are eligible to apply for an NHS Welcome bursary then you must apply each academic year in order for us to pay your course tuition fees. If you do not make an application to us then you will be responsible for paying your own fees. If the first year of your course started on or after 1 September 2012 you will receive a non means tested grant (NMTG) of 1000 when you apply (even if you are awarded a nil bursary). This is paid pro rata for part-time students. Who are NHS Student Bursaries? NHS Student Bursaries award and pay bursaries to eligible students on pre-registration health professional training courses, on behalf of the Department of Health (DH). You can read all of the Scheme Rules on the DH s website at: https://www.gov.uk/ government/publications (please search for NHS Bursary Scheme Rules ). NHS bursaries do not need to be repaid. However please be aware that if you withdraw from your course you may have to pay back any bursary that you have received for the time you were not in study. 2 3
Eligibility Scheme Rules Eligible courses If you are undertaking one of the courses listed below, you may be able to apply for an NHS bursary to help with your living costs whilst you study. However, you Eligible Healthcare Professions Chiropody/Podiatry Dental Hygiene/Dental Therapy Dentistry* Dietetics/Nutrition Medical* Nursing Midwifery Occupational Therapy should check with your University that the course you are doing is NHS commissioned. Operating Department Practitioner Orthotics/Prosthetics Orthoptics Physiotherapy Radiography Radiotherapy Speech and Language Therapy *From 2nd year of study for graduate entry programmes or 5th year of study for undergraduate programmes. This booklet provides an overview of the NHS Bursary Scheme. More detailed guidance on all aspects of NHS bursary support can be found in the booklet Financial Help for Healthcare Students which is available from our website at: http://www.nhsbsa. nhs.uk/students/816.aspx. Here you can find useful information for all existing and prospective NHS students. The NHS Bursary Scheme Rules can be read in full on the Department of Health s website at https://www.gov.uk/ government/publications (please search for NHS Bursary Scheme Rules ). To be personally eligible for NHS bursary funding you must meet certain residency criteria. You can check your eligibility using the calculator found on our website at: http://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/ Students/3941.aspx. 4 5
Bursary Elements Your annual bursary entitlement is made up of: Tuition Fees If you are eligible for an NHS student bursary, we will pay your course tuition fees. This will be paid directly to your Local Education Training Board (LETB). Medical/Dental - We will pay the standard course tuition fee contribution directly to your University. Non-Means Tested Grant (This only applies to courses where the first year started on or after 1 September 2012.) This is payable to all eligible new students (excluding EU fees only students), regardless of the course you are undertaking. It is paid at a set annual amount of 1000 for full-time students and pro rata for part-time students. Basic Award If you are undertaking any income assessed NHS commissioned course, you should also consult Student Finance England for more information regarding the type of additional loan support that may be available to you. Extra Weeks Allowance If your course runs for more than 30 weeks and 3 days during the academic year (excluding vacation periods), you may also be entitled to this additional allowance. Dependants Allowance This is payable if you have people who are wholly or mainly financially dependent on you during your time on your course. This may include your spouse or partner and children. Your entitlement to this allowance is assessed using your household income. Parent Learning Allowance This is payable if you have a dependant child or children. Your entitlement to this allowance is assessed using your household income. You must firstly apply for Dependants Allowance in order to then apply for Parent Learning Childcare Allowance This allowance is available to you if you have dependant children aged under 15 (or aged under 17 for children with special educational needs) on the first day of the academic year. Your entitlement to this allowance is assessed using your household income. You must firstly apply for Dependants Allowance in order to then apply for Childcare Allowance. Practice Placement Expenses Part of your course may include practice placements, which involve training in hospitals or community health services rather than the classroom. You may be entitled to have some of the costs associated with travelling to and from your placement site and certain accommodation expenses reimbursed to you. Please note that students from London Universities are reimbursed directly from their University and, therefore, do not need to apply to NHS Student Bursaries Disabled Student Allowance If you have a disability, and need extra help or equipment to complete your course, you may be eligible to apply for this allowance. Remember! You must reapply for your bursary each academic year. This is your basic income assessed amount based on where you will be living and studying whilst on your course. Allowance. for these expenses. 6 7
Making a Bursary Application It s easy to apply for your NHS student bursary using our online application system - BOSS (Bursary Online Support System) - which will take you through the necessary steps. What should I know before I apply? Before creating a BOSS account, you should use our bursary calculators to check your eligibility and determine whether your status is independent or dependent. You can also receive estimates for what your basic award could be and any additional allowances. We recommend you use our calculators first before you submit a bursary application. The calculators are accessible on our website at: http://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/ Students/3941.aspx. you will only receive a fees only bursary and you will not be not entitled to any incomeassessed bursary elements e.g. childcare. You must make an application in order to receive the non means tested grant. When applying for an NHS bursary for the first time you will need to provide two pieces of evidence to confirm your identity, one of which must include a photograph of yourself. This would normally be a birth certificate and a valid passport. We will return all original documentation as soon as they have been validated (within 15 working days). Please enclose a prepaid Special Delivery envelope so you can Applications for an NHS bursary will only be valid if they are received by NHS Student Bursaries within 6 months of the 1st day of your academic year. When can I apply? You can apply for your first student bursary once you have received an offer of a place on an NHS funded course from your University. Medical/Dental - You can apply for your first student bursary when you are entering your first year of NHS funding (see page 4 for when this is). Meeting your deadline ensures you will have your application processed and any bursary payments that are due available to view in your BOSS account ready for your academic year commencing. The deadline for Autumn 2013 new starters to submit their forms on BOSS and provide, by post, all requested supporting evidence is 23 August 2013. New students whose courses commence between January and May 2014 and Medical/ Dental students have separate deadlines for completing their BOSS application and sending in their supporting evidence. These are shown in the tables on the next page. We encourage applications to be made in good time, before your deadline, to prevent possible delays to payments, but we can accept them up to 6 months after your course begins. If you are eligible to apply but believe you will not be entitled to any bursary because, for example, your household income being over track the the threshold, you must still return make an application so that of your we can pay your course tuition documents fees. If your parent(s), spouse once they or partner do not wish to leave us. declare their income, to save time, they should answer no to this question. This means 8 9 We only accept original copies of all supporting evidence, which should be sent to our Middlebrook address (see page 18). Students who go through clearing should apply as soon as they can to ensure their payment delays are minimised. You should only make one bursary application even though you may receive multiple offers from Universities. The confirmation of enrolment from your chosen University will automatically update your BOSS account.
When does my course start? When is my deadline to apply? September 2013 23 August 2013 October 2013 23 August 2013 January 2014 30 November 2013 February 2014 31 December 2013 March 2014 31 January 2014 April 2014 28 February 2014 May 2014 31 March 2014 Medical/Dental When will I receive my first bursary payment? 10 days after we receive confirmation from your University that you are on your course (as long as we have also received all your BOSS forms and supporting evidence). When will I receive When does my course When is my deadline my first bursary start? to apply? payment? June 2013 31 May 2013 If deadline is met July 2013 28 June 2013 August 2013 31 July 2013 September 2013 23 August 2013 October 2013 23 August 2013 How do I apply? then you will be paid on the 3rd Friday of the month in which your course year starts. If deadline not met, payments may be delayed and will be made on the next available payment run. Please see the section Your Bursary Online Support System (BOSS) Account on page 14 for guidance on how to make a bursary application. When will I receive my bursary? Once we receive confirmation from your University that you have commenced your course, your first bursary payment will be made to you within 10 days (provided we have received your completed BOSS forms and all supporting evidence). Medical/Dental: Once your application is approved, your first payment will be made on the third Friday of the month or the next available payment run (see table opposite). New students, apart from Medical/Dental, always receive a double bursary instalment in the first month to assist with those initial costs when starting your course with the next payment following in month 3. Bursary payments (apart from your first) are made on the third Friday of each month directly into the bank account details you supplied on BOSS. Reapplying for your bursary next year All students must reapply for their bursary each academic year. You will be informed of your deadline in the future. This information will also be available on our website and Facebook page nearer the time. Once you have created a BOSS account you should never create a duplicate as this could result in your course fees not being paid. To reapply for your bursary next year you should log onto your BOSS account using your existing log in details and then click on the link apply/reapply for an NHS bursary. If you do not reapply for your bursary each academic year, your bursary payments will not continue automatically. 10 11
How will I know my application has been processed? What does your status (activity/ overall) in BOSS mean? You create a BOSS account (see page 14) and complete and submit all the required online forms. We will email you with a list of what supporting evidence you must send in. A copy of this email is stored in the Documents section of your BOSS account. Your status in BOSS changes to active. Your status in BOSS shows as pending. You send in all of the requested supporting evidence in one go as soon as it is available. Pending Your application is submitted but we are waiting for all of your evidence to be submitted. This means your application is not being processed. Active Your application is awaiting assessment/ being assessed. Approved Your application has been approved and is awaiting payments being released. Your status in BOSS goes back to pending. Your status in BOSS changes to approved. Your status in BOSS changes to rejected. Rejected Your application has been rejected. We will send you another reminder email requesting any missing supporting evidence. It is important to send in all your evidence at once. Sending it to us separately causes delays to your application being processed. Your overall status at top of page will state Enrolment Approval Required. This status will not show for Medical/Dental students. You can view what your bursary payments will be by looking in your BOSS account Payment Schedule. This details your monthly instalments broken down by basic award and any additional allowances e.g. childcare, if appropriate. Upon receipt of confirmation from your University that you have enrolled your overall status will change to In Payment. Medical/Dental students will go straight to this from approved once a BUR99 MED is received from your University. You will receive an email stating why this is the case. Enrolment Approval Required Your application has been approved and we are awaiting confirmation from your University that you have enrolled. Your Overall Status always appears at the top of the page under your name. Your Activity Status is shown under Activities on the Student Details tab. 12 13
Your Bursary Online Support System (BOSS) Account To create your BOSS account, follow these important steps: 1. Create a BOSS account by going to the link below and clicking on the register button. 2. Fill out your personal details and create your own username and password. 3. Provide answers to the security questions. 4. Press the register button and wait for an activation email to arrive. Don t forget to check your junk/spam folder. 5. Once you receive this email, you must activate your account within 72 hours or it will expire and you will have to create a new account using a different email address. After you have completed the above, you can access BOSS and fill out your bursary application forms. Making an application Once you have created your BOSS account you can start your application by logging on and clicking the apply/ reapply for an NHS bursary link. Please ensure you complete application forms accurately as you will be asked to supply evidence to support the information you provide. Please pay particular care when entering any financial information make sure this matches your supporting evidence. If you are unsure about any aspect of the application, there is hint text available to assist you (hover your cursor over the? symbol). Submitting the BOSS forms only creates a registration of interest in applying for a bursary. It only becomes a full application once we have received all your supporting evidence. We cannot process your application without this. If you intend to apply for Childcare Allowance you must firstly apply for Dependants Allowance (to do this you must indicate on the initial form on BOSS that you have someone who is financially dependent upon you). An email will be sent to you that lists the supporting evidence you must send to us we cannot process your application until you send us all of your evidence. To avoid delays in processing your application please submit all of your evidence at the same time. Don t forget to include your barcode cover sheet which contains your unique student reference number (beginning SBA) with any evidence or correspondence you send us (this can be downloaded from the Documents section of your BOSS account). Additional Allowances and Forms The forms that cannot be completed through your BOSS account are: - Childcare Allowance (this form must be countersigned by your childcare provider) - Practice Placement Expenses (this form must be countersigned by your University and they will send it to us - students at London Universities should claim these directly from their University) - Current Income Reassessment (PSM1 CI) - Confirmation of Pay (PSM60) - Declaration of Self Assessment Income (PSM65) - Confirmation of Personal Pension Contributions Paid (PSM90) More details about the above forms and downloadable versions can be found on our website at: http://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/ Students/3949.aspx. What else can I do in my BOSS account? As well as applying for additional allowances, you can also carry out a variety of tasks including: To create and access your online Through your BOSS account BOSS account visit our website you can apply for Dependants at: http://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/ Notify us of a change in Students/816.aspx. Allowance and Disabled circumstances to a current Students Allowance. bursary application (see page 16). 14 8 15
Monitor the activity/overall status of your application (see page 12-13). Change the bank details you want your bursary paid into. View your annual bursary entitlement and the dates your payments are due to be/have been made. View the email that outlines the supporting evidence you are required to submit before we can process your application. Download a barcode cover sheet (which must be sent off with any supporting evidence, paper forms and other correspondence that you send us). How to deal with any changes during your course Whilst attending your course your personal circumstances may change. It is your responsibility to notify us immediately of any changes which may impact on the amount of bursary you are entitled to as this will reduce the risk of any under or over payments being made. How do I notify you? You can only notify us about these changes by completing a Change of Circumstances form via your BOSS account: ensure you also notify your University so that they can submit a withdrawal form to us) These changes must be completed by downloading a paper form from our website: change of childcare costs but same childcare provider (complete a Childcare Allowance form) reduction of 15% or more to the previous tax year s income (complete a Current Income Reassessment form) Please note that if you change University during your course, you must submit a new application on BOSS detailing your new University and course information. This will be processed once we receive a BUR101R form from your new University. View your previous academic change of address year applications. change of relationship status change of estimated income A separate link in your BOSS account allows you to: Help and Guidance relating to additional allowances e.g. Dependants change your bank details The NHS Student Bursary website Allowance contains further information for all additional children Changes that can only be notified change of contact details students. Visit us at: www.nhsbsa. via our Customer Contact Centre change or addition to on 0300 330 1345 are: nhs.uk/students.aspx. childcare provider which may include costs as well (a paper form will also need to be suspending your training or leaving your course (please 16 completed) 17 Before you make a change of circumstances on BOSS you must check you have selected the correct academic year application to change. BOSS home page defaults to the current academic year you are in.
Contacting Us Useful External Contacts If you wish to enquire about your NHS student bursary please contact one of our advisors as follows. Telephone: 0300 330 1345 or 0191 279 0570 Our opening hours are: 8am - 6pm Monday to Friday 9am - 3pm Saturday Closed on Sunday Email: nhsbsa.sbaccount@nhs.net www.facebook.com/ NHSstudentbursaries Call Back Service Please note that we offer a call back service via text message. Please text 07860 033056 with your name and contact details and our staff will call you back as quickly as possible. Supporting Evidence/Paper Forms Please send these with your barcode cover sheet to: Ridgway House Northgate Close Middlebrook Horwich Bolton BL6 6PQ Complaints and Appeals bursarycomplaint@nhspa.gov.uk Write to us at: NHS Student Bursaries Hesketh House 200-220 Broadway Fleetwood Lancashire FY7 8SS Listed below are some external contacts to NHS Student Bursaries that you might find useful. Department of Health The NHS Bursary Scheme Rules are published by the Department of Health and can be viewed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/ publications (please search for NHS Bursary Scheme Rules ). UCAS Website: www.ucas.ac.uk Student Loans Company Website: www.slc.co.uk Student Finance England Website: www.sfengland.slc.co.uk National Union of Students Website: www.nus.org.uk NASMA (National Association of Student Money Advisors) Website: http://www.nasma.org.uk/ Student Awards Agency for Scotland Telephone: 0300 555 0505 Website: www.saas.gov.uk NHS Wales Student Awards Unit Telephone: 029 2019 6167 Website: www.wales.nhs.uk Northern Ireland - Student Finance Branch Telephone: 028 9025 7710 Website: www.delni.gov.uk We also offer a call back service via email. If you would like a call back please email nhsbsasbsms@ nhs.net with the subject header call back request and include your name and contact details in the email. 18 19
Version 1.0 May 2013 We have taken great care to ensure that the information in this booklet is correct at the time of publication. This guide is not intended to override or replace any of the NHS Bursary Scheme Regulations as set out by the Department of Health. For further information please visit our website at: www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/students.aspx. 20