Finance & Welfare Benefits

The Students’ Union Advice Centre is a licensed debt agency regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

The Advice Centre can help students in managing their debts by reviewing client’s accurate income and expenditure, with the aim of negotiating with creditors.

Under our debt license we must take reasonable steps to verify a client’s income and regular outgoings prior to submitting an offer of repayment to a creditor. Therefore, we will require the following details and documents:

• Last 3 payslips, if applicable
• Most recent Student Finance England/bursary notification
• Most recent benefit notification, if applicable
• Latest correspondence from all creditors, showing up-to-date balance and action being taken

Our advisors will also look at maximising your income so may require full details of your household information in order to do a benefit entitlement check.

Until we are satisfied that we have received the accurate information we require we will be unable to enter negotiations with creditors.

Please note, the Students’ Union is independent to the University. Therefore, any information/documents you have provided to the financial support team/Access to Learning Fund we will not have access to.

The University have teamed up with Blackbullion who can help you create a budget and grow your financial skills. We’ve put some of our top tips below, but check out Blackbullion for more information and tips.

1. Set a budget and stick to it!

2. Put money for essentials aside (rent, bills, food etc.) before spending on other items

3. Are you a commuting student? Get discounts on travel from the 16-25 railcard to the Unirider (Stagecoach) , Student ticket(Preston Bus) or an unlimited travel ticket (Fishwicks) .

4. Take advantage of student discounts- make sure you sign up for TOTUM to get exclusive student deals and discounts on local and national brands. You can buy a TOTUM card for the full offers, or just take advantage of the free TOTUM Digital app.

5. Get the best deal on your utilities: check the Money Saving Expert website which includes pages on Gas and Electricity, Mobiles and Broadband.

The Advice Centre can check if your current benefits are correct and can see if there are any additional welfare benefits you may be entitled to

We can do an estimate benefit calculation for you and would need you to answer all of the following questions to be able to do this:

• Are you a full-time or part-time student?
• What is your date of birth?
• Do you have any children? If so, we will need to know how many, what gender, and birth dates
• Do you have a partner? Please provide date of birth
• Do you, your partner or any children have a disability that you are receiving benefits for?
• Are you currently in receipt of any benefits? If so which?
• Please send a copy of any benefit notifications/letters being received in your household
• Are you renting or do you have a mortgage? What is your postcode? How many bedrooms? What is your rental figure?
• If renting, are you renting from a private landlord, from a local authority (council) or a housing association?
• If you have any rent-free week, please let us know how many rent-free weeks you have
• Please send copy of your Student Finance England breakdown/NHS Bursary funding if applicable (for SFE we need to see a breakdown of grants being received)
• Your net earnings/take home earnings (and partner’s, if applicable) – pay rate and amount of hours worked
• What course are you studying and what year are you in?
• Are you studying undergraduate or postgraduate?

Please note that the Students’ Union is independent from the University - if you have sent your information/documents over to the Financial Support team we do not have access to this. This will need to be sent to us directly.

Due to the high volume of referrals we receive it may take the Advice Centre up to a week to complete a benefit calculation.